Bears put down after break-ins at Swannanoa homes

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Four bears were euthanized after breaking into homes in a neighborhood north of Swannanoa, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission reported.

According to our news partners at WLOS, an adult female bear and two cubs got into a home through a locked window on Aug. 17 and caused damage over a few days.

The owner of the home came back from a vacation and saw security video of the bears breaking in, according to WLOS. The homeowner boarded up the window, but the bears returned and took it down.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission told WLOS that the bears near the home had been fed “intentionally and unintentionally for years,” and that’s why they kept coming back. That’s also why they had to be put down.

“That was done out of the interest of public safety,” Ashley Hobbs, a Special Projects Biologist with the NCWRC told WLOS. “Once a bear receives a food reward for a behavior it is very likely that they are going to repeat that same behavior.”

Swannanoa is about 10 miles east of Asheville.

Hobbs told WLOS that another bear was put down after it tried to get into the same house.

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