Group in Ottawa advocating for changes after bear shot and killed in west end

A group of local Ottawa residents is trying to encourage changes to the city's wildlife strategy after police officers shot and killed a bear earlier this week.

The black bear had been spotted in Bells Corners and Kanata, often eating birdseed from bird feeders.

The city had been working with partners to trap the bear, which was described by a staffer in an email as "very chill." On Monday night, Ottawa police officers shot the bear after being called to a Kanata neighbourhood. The bear was close to homes in the area and police deemed it a "significant public safety risk."

Police claimed to have tried other options to safely remove the animal but "regrettably, the bear had to be put down to ensure the safety of residents in the surrounding area."

Now, a group called "We Must Do Better - National Capital Region Wildlife"  is encouraging residents to advocate for changes to how the city deals with wild animals.

Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA's CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent, the group's founder, Lisa Darragh, said the story motivated her to do something.

"When I woke up that morning, I felt compelled to write something on my community page. That blew up. It was actually suggested I might want to make my own group, and that's what I did," she said. "We now have 600-plus members in a matter of days. People are outraged."

Darragh said she spoke with a resident who witnessed the bear being shot.

"When they started shooting at it, it tried to run away. It was a very hard conversation," she said.

Despite outrage from members of the community over the killing of the bear, Darragh says it wasn't the fault of the officers who responded that night.

"We want to support our police department as well. We do not blame those two officers who had to do the deed. We know that they did not want to do that," she said. "We want to support them in the fact that they should be able to say, 'No, we are not doing these calls.' … This is someone else's job that should have been on-call 24/7, or we need someone in the city who is trained to do this, our own emergency response team, perhaps."

The city is currently in the process of reviewing its wildlife strategy. The last time it was updated was 2013.

"Given that the Wildlife Strategy has not been fully implemented and has been in place for a decade, the City is reviewing the strategy while specifically examining options to address issues with coyotes," the city says on its website. "The recommended review would determine whether updates or other changes are required to the Wildlife Strategy."

The city has had a number of issues with coyotes in the past year. Last fall, there were efforts to trap coyotes in the Riverside Park South area. On Saturday afternoon, Ottawa police had issued a cautionary note about a coyote being spotted in the Rideauview Terrace area.

Darragh said she and her group want to see revisions to the strategy about more than just coyotes.

"Everybody is to barrage your councilperson with your opinion on this because that is how change is effected, through you speaking to your representative and your representative going to bat at council for what you want," Darragh said.

"Our next step is probably to piggyback with the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre," she added. "I think we're just going to help with public opinion, keeping that going behind the wildlife centre as they also try to invoke change at council."