dy (Bill Hilton) wrote:

Treadwell took a lot of chances and has done things like pet the bears or sleep
curled up beside them. I saw a TV
special on Tim recently where a bear was stalking his campsite with menace and
he finally said "I've got to charge the bear and show him who's boss", which he
did, running at the bear screaming and waving his arms.

Hard to be too sympathetic about him. Apparently the park rangers had
repeatedly pleaded with him to keep his distance from the bears and
he'd refused. He and his girlfriend was in an area where firearms
were not allowed and there was no else one around to help when he got
in trouble.

He has a lot of experience and was quoted as saying the
bears were harmless and "party animals" at heart. But it only takes one bear
to turn your world up-side down and he met that bear and lost.

To me treating carnivorous wild animals that are bigger than you are
as harmless is like climbers arguing they can outwit gravity. Running
into a bad situation is a not a matter of if, but when. Just ask Roy
Horn.

Treadwell's "experience" was self-taught, which isn't always bad. But
apparently professionals wanted nothing to do with him because of the
chances they saw him taking, and most of them disagreed with a lot of
his opinions on their behavior.

The bear fled but I wondered at the time how many times he could get away with that.

They had to shoot one bear that was eating the body and another that
got too aggressive while they were removing it.



Scott Peterson


If vegetarians eat vegetables, what
do humanitarians eat?