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Lois Henry: Bear attack details shouldn't be kept secret
| Tuesday, Jul 29 2008 6:13 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 30 2008 8:21 AM
It’s a sad fact of life that when people and wild animals collide, the animals usually lose.
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There are reasons for that, good ones. I understand that.
What I don’t understand, what I’ll never understand, and will continue to rail against, is when government treats us mere citizens as if we don’t have any rights.
In the case of the recent bear attack in the Piute mountains, I’m having a big problem with the fact that the Department of Fish and Game has withheld key information about the attack.
They had the victim’s statement last week describing the attack, including a description of the bear, but refused to release it.
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” I was first told by Fish and Game public information officer Steve Martarano in the Sacramento office.
The game wardens who were tracking the bear are just like cops, he said.
Really? Such investigatory documents typically are withheld under a specific exemption to the California Public Records Act so suspects don’t change their appearance or flee the country.
Were they worried the bear would get a dye job?
It turns out the real reason Fish and Game withheld the information was in deference to the family of the victim which asked Fish and Game to keep it under wraps, Martarano said.
The search for the bear has been called off. I wonder if releasing the statement immediately would have improved the chances of finding the bear. We’ll never know — since we can’t be trusted with that information.
I feel bad for the victim. She was horribly injured and I’m amazed at her presence of mind to be able to drive, bleeding and scared out of her wits, to a fire station. I hope with all my heart she comes out of this OK and is able to overcome it.
But if I lived in that area — and people do — I’d want to know as much about exactly what happened, where and when so I could protect myself.
I mentioned that to Martarano, since the reason Fish and Game was hunting this bear was for “public safety.”
No dice. He wouldn’t release the statement nor provide any legal authority for keeping it secret.
Fish and Game was trying to be sensitive to the family’s wishes, he said.
I’m sorry for the family. I am.
But Fish and Game doesn’t work for the family. They work for the taxpayers and we have a right to know how this attack happened. It may have happened on private property, but it was a public issue involving a lot of man-hours at taxpayer expense.
Some people have protested the need to kill the bear at all. Even if the bear had stalked this woman and attacked her in her kitchen, there would be some people who wouldn’t want it killed. I’m not one of those people.
Fish and Game’s policy, which seems reasonable, is that when a normally skittish wild animal attacks a human, there’s something dreadfully wrong with that animal and to prevent further attacks, it must be put down.
Keeping the process secret only fuels the belief of some people that Fish and Game is up to no good.
When will government learn that?
Instead, they just want us to trust that they’re doing the right thing.
I say trust is earned when they actually do the right thing, such as honoring state law with regard to public records.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com.