State wildlife officers in California euthanized a black bear on Tuesday that the authorities said had injured two people in separate encounters in less than a year in Los Angeles County, leaving two cubs orphaned and drawing criticism from some residents.
The officers captured all three bears on Sunday in Monrovia, Calif., one day after the mother bear had approached a woman who was walking her dog and scratched her with its claws, city officials said.
The woman avoided serious injuries during the encounter with the mother bear, who had made a den beneath a home in a neighborhood next to the Angeles National Forest, the authorities said. Monrovia is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
In an online update, the city manager, Dylan Feik, said on Tuesday that the mother bear, whom residents had nicknamed Blondie, was dead.
“The Monrovia City Council requested and lobbied for the bear and her cubs to be relocated into the Angeles National Forest but the decision was never the city’s to make,” Mr. Feik wrote. “By the time we were able to speak with state officials involved in the decision-making, the decision to euthanize was already made.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said that officers had designated the mother bear as a threat to public safety and had used her DNA to connect her to both Saturday’s encounter with the dog-walker and one last June in which an older man was clawed as he was sitting on his porch in Monrovia. That man also avoided serious injuries. The statement from the Fish and Wildlife Department used the word “attack” to describe both of those encounters.
“Euthanasia is used only as a last resort when an animal poses a risk to public safety and cannot be safely returned to the wild,” the department said. “Relocation may seem like a solution but is not an option when it could put public safety at risk. Bears have strong spatial memory and often return to familiar areas. When translocated long distances, they recreate the same conflict behavior or struggle to survive in unfamiliar habitat.”
State wildlife officials said that the two cubs had been taken to a “permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility, where they will grow and develop the skills necessary to survive in the wild.”
“When ready, they will be released into suitable habitat, giving them the opportunity to live full, wild lives,” the department said.
Brian Gordon, 47, who lives a few blocks from where the bear made its den, said that he recorded videos of the bear cooling off in his swimming pool on Sunday, several hours before wildlife officers trapped and tranquilized it.
Mr. Gordon posted the footage on a popular Instagram account that he maintains called @poolbearlife. On Monday, he started an online petition calling on state wildlife officials to save Blondie and her cubs. The petition had more than 3,700 signatures on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Mr. Gordon learned that the bear had been euthanized.
“We were all devastated because we live around these bears,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “I understand no one wants to be put in danger. It felt rather fast and not thoroughly investigated.”
Living at the edge of the Angeles National Forest, Mr. Gordon said that encounters with bears are common in his neighborhood and that he and most other residents know to keep a distance from bears and their cubs. He and his neighbors have organized a vigil and a walk for Blondie on Saturday
“We’re now preaching coexistence and bear awareness so ourselves and them are not in any type of danger,” he said.
There are about 60,000 black bears in California, with adult females, known as sows, weighing 100 to 300 pounds, according to the state Fish and Wildlife Department.
State wildlife officials said homeowners should secure crawl spaces and not leave unsecured trash or pet food that could attract bears, which, in some notable instances, have taken up residence in close quarters with humans in California.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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