Conservation officers in the Whitehorse area are getting tired.

They're getting tired of the non-stop bear complaints.

And they're particularly tired of having to kill bears.

It's not what the wildlife officers signed up for, senior CO Kris Gustafson said in an interview this week.

He insisted there is absolutely nothing appealing about sticking a rifle muzzle inside a culvert trap and shooting a bear in the head.

Yet that's what they do with some repeat offenders which have become accustomed to easy spoils left around in somebody's yard, whether it's an aromatic can of garbage, dog food, or even an outdoor freezer left unlocked.

Bears, said Gustafson, can smell the frozen contents of a freezer from half a mile away.

And if it's not locked, it's dinner – potentially a deadly dinner.

In this season of poor berry crops and a large number of bear complaints, outdoor freezers have become a food source.

"If you have to keep your freezer outside and you live in bear country, which is everywhere in the Yukon, you need to lock your freezer,” Gustafson said.

Nineteen bears have been shot in and around Whitehorse so far: 14 by conservation officers and five by the RCMP and members of the public. Fifteen have been relocated.

Gustafson emphasized again – just as Environment Yukon staff have been saying all spring and summer – if bears get rewarded in their search for food, especially in a lean year for berries, in all likelihood, they'll be back.

A male black bear which had developed a taste for the fare in Tagish was relocated in late July to the South Canol Road, about 100 kilometres away.

Ten days later, he was back.

He was shot in the culvert trap last Saturday night.

Emotional?

"Totally,” said Gustafson. "We did not get into this business to kill bears.

"It's extremely distasteful.... To kill a bear is the last thing you want to do.”

It all comes back to the same message, Gustafson said: Garbage, any available source of food left in the yard, is potentially a deadly source of food.

"Clearly, the message does not resonate,” he said. "It's frustrating.

"Usually you do these education campaigns to effect positive change, and clearly, it's not working.”

Gustafson said it's unrealistic to think bear incidents could ever be eliminated.

But in communities in B.C., where residents and municipalities have gone the extra mile to reduce bear attractants, the number of bear problems has dropped substantially, he said.

Officers were back out at Tagish this week dealing with a grizzly sow and her cub.

The sow, said Gustafson, was living on natural foods for years, and was part of the study of the grizzly population in the Southern Lakes region.

First it was dog food left out; then it was a freezer for her and her cub.

Gustafson said the two were recently relocated some 80 kilometres away to the area at the south end of Kusawa Lake.

But they're back in Tagish, and officers have set out a trap. She'll get another chance because she is in the prime of her life, and a valuable breeding bear.

Grizzlies, said Gustafson, have a low reproductive rate, and don't begin breeding until they're eight or nine years old.

He said in this case, they're going to try again to relocate her and her cub.

Relocation, Gustafson said, is no joy ride for the bears.

They're being released in an unfamiliar area, with no sense of where to find food, perhaps where there are competing interests from other bears.

It's not Walt Disney, he said.

Environment Yukon staff have recommended if there is some place to store garbage containers until the morning of the pickup day, it's best to tuck them away.

Staff were also planning to work with the city to explore locking mechanisms for the garbage and composting containers, similar to those being used in some communities down south.

Eliminating attractants will go a long way to prevent bears from being killed, staff insist.