Female bear and her cubs shot dead after biting and scratching two people in British Columbia

A female bear and her two cubs were killed after a woman and a conservation officer sustained minor injuries in Mission, British Columbia in Canada on early Sunday morning (22 October).

Inspector Murray Smith said that the 21-year-old woman was met by the animal when she opened her back door after she heard a commotion in her backyard, Global B.C. News reported.

When she opened the door, a black bear knocked her down, bit her in the back and scratched her.

The woman's boyfriend scared the animal back outside. She was taken to hospital and was treated for minor injuries.

According to Smith, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officers called the Conservation Officer Service to the house. The officers later found the female bear and her two 34-kilogram cubs in a tree behind the house.

When the conservation officer arrived, the bear came down from the tree and bit the officer in the leg.

The officer was taken to a hospital where she received stitches. Later the British Columbia conservation officers shot the bear and her two cubs.

"The reason that decision was made was because all the residents in the neighbourhood said the bears had been in their yards multiple times in the last few days," Smith said, according to Times Colonist news website.

The neighbours had reported seeing the bears eat from fruit trees in the area. The bears would get into garbage pails and this behaviour suggests that the animals were "human habituated," Smith added.

"Normally when a person opens their back door, the bear runs away," Smith said. "When a bear decides to challenge and come into a house that means they've been around people quite a bit."

Smith said there have been 245 calls about bears in Mission so far this year, but the female bear and her cubs were the first to be killed.