ABQjournal NM: Bear Killed After Boy Bitten
The Associated Press

RATON— Game officers killed a small black bear believed to have bitten a 13-year-old boy camping at Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton, a spokesman for the state Game and Fish Department said Tuesday.

The bear was killed with a shotgun blast about 4 p.m. Monday afternoon and its head was sent to the state laboratory in Albuquerque to be tested for rabies, Dan Williams said.

The boy, Matthew Ortiz from Raton, is undergoing rabies treatment as a precaution, Williams said. The teen was not seriously hurt.

State law requires rabies testing on any wild animal that bites or scratches a person and breaks the skin, Williams said.

He said the bear, which weighed about 100 pounds, was shot near the Soda Pocket Campground where the boy was bitten early Sunday.

“Judging from the size of the bear and the size of the tracks and other things at the scene like the tooth marks and their distance from the ground, they determined it was very, very, very likely it was the bear that bit the boy,” Williams said. [mjh: Is this the new standard for slaughter: very, very, very likely.]

The teen heard something brush against his tent about 2:20 a.m. Sunday and slapped the side, thinking a relative was playing a trick. He apparently slapped the bear, which bit his hand and ran away, state parks officials said.

They believe the bear was searching for food.”

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/577423nm07-11-07.htm

ABQjournal NM: Around New Mexico
Bear That Bit Boy Didn’t Have Rabies [mjh: oops!]

RATON— A small black bear believed to have bitten a 13-year-old boy camping at Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton did not have rabies, a spokesman for the state Game and Fish Department said Wednesday.

The bear was killed with a shotgun blast Monday afternoon and its head was sent to the state laboratory in Albuquerque, where it was tested for rabies. The results were negative, Dan Williams said.

The boy, Matthew Ortiz from Raton, was not seriously hurt but underwent rabies treatment as a precaution.”

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/577659nm07-12-07.htm

The teen was more than 50% responsible for this: he provoked the bear. And the bear was brutally slaughtered with a SHOTGUN. Who are these wildlife killers? mjh