Nipawin-area man kills black bears after close encounter

By Brandon Graziano

A Nipawin-area farmer says he hopes his killing of two black bears doesn’t prompt others to turn up.

Robert “Bud” Jardine, 80, said he got a startling surprise Sunday when a black bear twice entered his home in the RM of Torch River.

Jardine described it as a scary ordeal and said he had no other choice but to shoot a bear that broke through his window.

“I noticed a few signs around the house that an animal entered the house,” Jardine said. “At the time I wasn’t sure if it was raccoons or something else. I then saw the deep freezer door ripped off and I immediately knew it was a bear.”

Jardine said he’d been helping a neighbour with harvest and didn’t get home until 2 a.m. When he got back into his yard, he found more items dragged out of the house.

“I shined a light into where the bear entered my home and saw the bear there. Though he was a gentleman bear. The only destruction he did was the windows. He was in and out. It’s an uncomfortable thing to have around your house,” he said.

After the bear left, Jardine said a passing conservation officer helped put a piece of plywood over his window.

That’s when more nasty business started with the bear.

“It was about 5:30 a.m. and I really didn’t feel like going to bed that tired. So, I piled a bunch of dishes in front of the hole he came in from. The dishes were piled high and it would have to make a noise. So, two hours later I didn’t wake up to the sound of dishes, I woke up to the sound of the plywood,” Jardine said.

Jardine said he found the bear inside his house once again. This time, he was able to take a shot. The bear backed away and Jardine tracked the animal about 15 metres into the forest, where he found it dead.

He said he then noticed another bear near his shed as he walked home. He shot and killed that one too.

“You know at that time in the morning I would have been sleeping. If he came through the door, I knew he was going to kill me. I never saw a bear act like that before.”

Jardine said this wasn’t the first time he’s dealt with bears in and around his property.

“This happens occasionally. Twenty years ago I had declared war on them. My children were in danger. Nothing good was happening. I killed 11 bears in two days at that time,” Jardine said.