Bear hit and killed by car near Foresthill found with all four of its paws cut off and stolen – KCRA

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division is looking for the person responsible
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division is looking for the person responsible
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division is looking for the person responsible
A dead bear was found with all four of its paws cleanly cut off and stolen. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division is now investigating.

Capt. Patrick Foy said the bear was hit by a car on Saturday. The person who hit the bear was distressed and called 911 to report the incident.

A local deputy responded to the scene and found the bear, who at that point, had died.
“Typically, the way it works is when you have road kill, the agency or whoever has the jurisdiction over that roadway comes over, and they pick up the carcass, or they’ll drag the carcass off the side of a road and let nature do what nature does, but when you’re talking about a bear carcass, these are really, really heavy,” Foy said. “They’re difficult to move around, even drag, so that didn’t happen. The bear was there overnight, and in the morning, someone showed up, and the paws had been cut off.”

Foy said cutting the paws off a bear is an unlawful misdemeanor act. The person, or people, responsible could face up to a year in jail time and a fine of $1,000 if convicted.
Fish and Wildlife is asking for the public’s help in identifying who is responsible for this mutilation. You can report tips at 888-334-2258 or at the CALTIP Californians Turn in Poachers and Polluters website here.
KCRA 3 spoke exclusively with the woman who discovered the butchered animal Sunday morning at around 7:30 a.m.
“The bone was clean cut,” Jordyn Pari Davies said. “The flesh was still fresh. It was red.”
Davies said she was glad her daughter was not with her when she spotted the bear, due to how graphic the scene was.
“We got in that car very, very angry for the rest of the day just thinking about who did it,” she said.

The Bear League is an organization based out of Tahoe that has advocated for bears for nearly 30 years.
Its director, Ann Bryant, told KCRA 3 the organization has seen cases like this before. Some want the bear paws to sell, make expensive soup, or have it as a souvenir.

Bryant said some people make ashtrays out of them.
“It looked like somebody knew what they were doing,” Bryant said, after looking at the photos of the butchered bear.
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