[Update, May 7, 6:04 p.m.] DEEP Euthanizes Bear Cub That Farmington Man Shot and Injured

A Bonnie Drive resident unintentionally wounded a 100-pound bear cub last Wednesday morning after firing a pellet gun to scare off three black bears and protect his dog, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials said Monday. 

"The man had a small dog on a lead in his back yard," Dwayne Gardner, a DEEP spokesperson, said Monday. "Mother bear and two cubs came into the back yard and one of the bears appeared that it was going to attack the dog.”

Rodrick Lynch, of Farmington, did not intend to hurt the bears when he fired the pellet gun, but his shot hit one of the two cubs, Gardner said. 

Paul Rego, DEEP wildlife biologist, said that the cub was paralyzed when staff arrived. The mother bear and uninjured cub were also still on the property, Gardner said.

"Upon examining the dead bear, it was unclear whether the pellet caused the paralysis," Rego said.

Lynch brought his dog inside and called 911, Gardner said. Farmington police and DEEP officials responded to the incident, which happened around 9:30 a.m. 

DEEP tranquilized the mother bear and uninjured cub, Gardner said. They were released "on site," Rego said. A tracking collar was put on the "sow," he said.

DEEP staff did a necropsy, or an autopsy for an animal, on the bear, Rego said. Officials also inspected the bear's torso "for trauma" and discovered two pellets there, he said. Finding the injuries too severe to save it, DEEP officials euthanized the bear "where it was found," Rego said.

DEEP is not charging Lynch in the incident.

“We performed an investigation and it was determined in this case that he wasn’t trying to kill the bear and he was just trying to scare it away...so based on that we declined to press charges," Gardner said, noting that DEEP would have the authority to press charges in situations like this involving the shooting of wildlife.

Gardner said there was another sighting Tuesday before the incident of a mother and two cubs, but he said DEEP did not confirm whether these were the same bears.

Rego said that birdfeeders on Lynch's property "may have been a lure" for the bear, but could not confirm whether there was seed in the feeders.

In response to the incident of the bear shooting, one Farmington resident wrote to Patch that she has been feeding a bear cub, but it's not clear whether it was the same one.

Gardner cautions against feeding black bears or wild animals.

“We strongly, strongly discourage people from feeding any type of wildlife," Gardner said. "If they genuinely care about bears and wildlife, the worse thing they can do for the animal is feed it.” 

If people regularly feed bears, they become "habituated" and used to being fed by humans, Gardner said. That could cause them to become "problem" bears in the future, he said. 

Correction: The original version of this story reported that the bear cub was injured in the leg and inspected and euthanized at DEEP's facility in Burlington. That information DEEP provided to Patch was incorrect. Upon clarifying the information, Patch learned from DEEP Wildlife Biologist Paul Rego that officials inspected the torso of the bear, not the legs, and discovered two pellets. The bear was paralyzed when DEEP arrived. After evaluating the bear's condition, DEEP officials euthanized the bear on site. DEEP also previously told Patch that the mother bear and uninjured cub were relocated, but they were in fact released in the same area, according to Rego. This article was updated on May 7 at 6:04 p.m. to reflect the correct information and an update from Rego.