Thetford — Fish and Wildlife officials said a Thetford resident shot and killed a black bear last week after he caught the sow in the act of killing chickens inside his chicken coop.

Fish and Wildlife District Supervisor Lt. Justin Stedman said a Godfrey Road resident shot the bear lawfully and no charges will be filed.

“A person is able to shoot an animal that is killing livestock,” said Stedman, who declined to release the man’s name.

The 5-year-old bear was the mother of two male yearling cubs, said Lyme resident Ben Kilham, an expert who studies bear activity.

The bear happened to be one of nearly a dozen bears Kilham has been studying long-term.

She wore an orange collar that contained a monitoring device that relayed information back to Kilham and the New Hampshire Fire and Game Department.

Her name was Clarkie; Kilham named her that after where she was first identified — Clark Pond in Canaan.

“We basically have data on her whole life,” Kilham said.

Clarkie hadn’t been in any trouble for the first four years of her life, he said, but when she emerged from her den this spring, a scarce food supply forced her to search for food in nontraditional places.

The 150-pound bear broke into several chicken coops in Thetford over the past several weeks, killing more than 40 chickens, Thetford Animal Control Officer Stu Rogers said.

The man who shot the bear didn’t have an electric fence around the coop, but did have standard chicken wire fencing around the enclosure, Stedman said.

“It is my understanding the bear got into the enclosure,” Stedman said.

The man shot the bear last Thursday, and contacted Fish and Wildlife officials within 12 hours, the timeframe necessary to comply with state law.

According to state statute, a person is authorized to kill a bear if the bear damages livestock, pets or other domestic animals; bees or bee hives; a vehicle, building or dwelling; and crops or crop-bearing plants.

Though the law states a person is only authorized to shoot a bear “after attempting reasonable nonlethal measures to protect his or her property,” a person isn’t required to take that step if there is a “need for immediate protection of a person, livestock, pet, domestic animal or occupied dwelling” or if a bear damages unharvested cornfields.

Because the bear had made her way into the man’s chicken coop and was in the process of killing his livestock, he wasn’t required to first implement a nonlethal measure, Stedman said.

However, nonlethal measures had been used on Clarkie in the days and weeks preceding the shooting, he said.

Fish and Game Warden Jeff Whipple, who answers to calls in Thetford, had physically chased Clarkie off a Thetford family’s property and on a separate occasion shot Clarkie twice with rubber bullets in an attempt to deter her from repetitive behavior.

Neither tactic worked long-term though. The bear was given away to be butchered, Stedman said.

Stedman likened bear’s habits to those of “high-schoolers.”

“It’s like trying to correct a teenager’s behavior after they have been doing it for a long time,” he said.

Rogers, Thetford’s animal control officer, said in April and May he received numerous calls from residents about Clarkie and the other five adult bears in town killing livestock and getting a little too close for comfort.

He received calls too from a resident about an aggressive gray fox that had lunged at a woman and her husband. The fox was later found and killed; it tested positive for distemper, but negative for rabies, Rogers said. He urged residents to get their canines vaccinated.

Stedman urged individuals with livestock to put up electric fences, which are the best way to deter bears from entering chicken coops, though he noted they are not “fool proof.” All birdfeeders should be down by now and garbage barrels and dumpsters should be secured before and after each use, he said.

The shooting appeared to upset some Thetford residents, who posted on the Listserv about the act.

One of those residents, Hope Waterfield, said she wished it didn’t have to get to this point.

“I am frustrated,” Waterfield said.

Not only was she upset about the shooting, but she said she was uneasy about the way officials have handled it after-the-fact. As of Monday, she said, an official hadn’t posted publicly about what happened to the bear.

“There is no information out there at all,” Waterfield said.

The lack of acorns after the early winter thaw and a delay in green vegetation forced Clarkie to look for food in residents’ backyards, Kilham, the bear expert, said. The bear not only needed to feed herself, he said, but also her two cubs.

Her cubs are at the age now where they would have been leaving their mother in late May or June, Kilham said. Therefore, there are enough food sources available for them to get by.

“They are going to live,” Kilham said. “They will be fine.”

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.

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