Rosalind S. Helderman of the Washington Post wrote about Buster and Baby, two lovely Richmond black bears that were put to death and thrown on the trash heap. We got the story clear out here in Idaho.

We have plenty of black bears here in Idaho and we could ship Richmond a couple of new ones but there are plenty of bears out their way too so I guess they'll manage.

We moved up to Idaho a couple of years ago. In out town in Arizona we had 23 bears about 4 years ago, young males driven out of their territories. They knocked over garbage cans as bears do and were individually captured and sent to new territory. I haven't seen any bears here in Idaho.

Up in Yellowstone last year, we saw no bears at all, not even the grizzlies that we use to see digging for roots near the Yellowstone River. The black bears were up in the hills eating from one of their favorite food sources, so we didn't see them either. We saw plenty of elk and buffalo, and a bald eagle.

The above two paragraphs are what we writers call filler. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

Now, back to the story.

A child, a four-year-old boy, not being watched by his mother or not be controlled by his mother or allowed to do whatsoever he wanted to do by his mother, crossed over a wood fence, walked up to the metal fence barrier, stuck his hand in to pet a bear, and got gently nipped by the bear. The nip did not break the skin.

So they killed the bears and sent their brains to be examined for rabies which they did not have. The bears were thrown on the dump heap.

Well, everybody in Richmond got angry as all out as they should have. The powers-that-be send a backhoe out to the dump site and retrieved the bears. They were given a tearful funeral in which hundreds of Richmond residents attended.

Authorities said they had to kill the bears even though the skin was not broken. They couldn't take a chance. If the boy had to take a series of shots to prevent rabies, there could have been side effects unpleasant.

The new shots are not as bad as the old. My son, years ago, had the old ones shot into his belly. He had no side effects but the pain of getting the shots was intense. He was very brave and did not cry. We didn't know there were possible side effects.

Anyway, the poor bears under the protection of Richmond were not protected and now they are dead. The best thing to do is to get a couple of new bears and to put fine mesh around the main fence barrier to keep little fingers out when moms forget to watch their kids.