PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is investigating the killing by sheriff’s deputies of a black bear that wandered into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County over the weekend.
Black bear sightings are not uncommon in parts of Florida, and FWC wants to determine why deputies chose to shoot a young 6-foot, 300-pound black bear instead of having it tranquilized or trapped so it could be moved to a 700-acre nature preserve only blocks away.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, in a released statement, said the bear was killed for the sake of keeping neighborhood residents safe and traffic concerns, and that they “had no choice but to shoot it.”…