MONTREAL -- Sauvetage Animal Rescue says it was shocked to hear that the bear spotted in Dorval over the weekend was euthanized.
On its Facebook page, the organization stated it had heard, "the bear was not frightened enough by humans and was likely to re-offend, creating a public safety risk."
Montreal police received a 911 call on Sunday afternoon about the bear, who had sought refuge under a tree in someone's backyard.
By 8 p.m., authorities confirmed the bear had been captured by agents from Quebec's Forestry Ministry.
It was tranquilized and placed in a cage to be transported for release.
"We were not contacted by the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks to indicate that another decision had been made," Sauvetage Animal Rescue stated. "We are in contact with several shelters that could have taken the young bear in, if releasing it was impossible."
In a written statement Tuesday, the ministry said a decision was made to euthanize the bear given the high risk of recurrence since the bear did not fear entering noisy and urban environments.
"Let us reiterate that this was not a cub, but a sub-adult bear of one-and-a-half years old," the ministry said.
Officials say they didn't want to place the wild animal in a zoo, but the proposal of a temporary shelter was also deemed counterintuitive.
"The main purpose of a shelter is to rehabilitate an animal. However, the stay of a wild animal in such an environment presents a risk of habituation of the animal to humans," according to the ministry's statement. "The release of an animal that has lost its fear of humans can represent a risk to human safety when it is a predator, such as the bear."
Residents in Dorval had been urged to stay indoors Sunday while animal control was called in to detain the bear.
