A Bruin Battle : Big Bear Residents Win Round in Rift With State Over Cub’s Fate

Residents of Big Bear Lake, struggling to prevent the state from taking an abandoned bear cub away from them, won a preliminary victory Monday when a judge ordered that the fuzzy female could remain with its mountain caretakers for at least three more weeks.

After a closed-door hearing in Barstow, Superior Court Judge Rufus L. Yent ruled that Coconino, a 54-day-old black bear that has just learned to walk, may continue to live with veterinarian Kent Walker until a court hearing April 17.

“I’m very relieved,” Walker said after the ruling. “We believe Coco can have a very happy, healthy life (in Big Bear), and this gives us time to make our case.”

Yent’s ruling marked the latest twist in a saga that has stirred debate about the proper handling of wild animals adopted by humans at birth.

The cuddly cub was found Jan. 30 by hikers in a wooded valley north of Big Bear Lake, a village of 6,500 in the San Bernardino Mountains known mostly for its ski resorts. Apparently abandoned by its mother, the whimpering newborn weighed seven ounces and its umbilical cord was still dangling from its belly.

The hikers turned the bear over to Walker, who took the scrawny critter into his home and began feeding it a special milk formula from a baby bottle.

Before long, the cub was the talk of the town. Walker took her to school classrooms and senior-citizen functions. She also was featured on the front page of the local newspaper, called, ironically, The Grizzly.

“This bear is absolutely precious,” said San Bernardino County Supervisor Marsha Turoci, who represents the Big Bear area and enjoyed a cuddling session with Coco recently. “She puts her paws around your face and cries just like a baby. . . . You can see how this community became so attached.”

After consulting several bear experts, Walker and his wife, Joyce, decided Coco had become too accustomed to humans to ever survive release into the wild. So they decided the cub should spend its future in the Big Bear area, in a specially designed, enclosed ecological preserve simulating the bear’s natural habitat.

Other mountain residents enthusiastically supported the idea, with some suggesting Coco could become the city’s mascot, or at least serve as an educational resource for schoolchildren and tourists.

But the state Department of Fish and Game--which has legal authority over California’s wildlife--took a different view and began making plans to send Coco to a “rehabilitation” center to prepare her for reintroduction to the wild.

“Animals are the property of the state of California and the citizens of the state and we want to see them in their natural environment,” Fish and Game spokesman Curt Taucher said. “We’re not trying to be the heavy in this. We’re trying to do what’s best for the cub. And what’s best is for her to be as far from humans as possible.”

Walker, however, citing evidence gained from a handful of wildlife experts, is convinced the rehabilitation process would fail and that Coco--regarding all humans as friends because of her happy experience immediately after birth--would merely become an easy target for poachers.

“She is so deeply imprinted with people that I am extremely concerned about her ability to avoid starvation or death at the hands of hunters and other animals,” Walker said. “I talked to a lot of experts and not one said her odds of survival were better than 10%.”

So the veterinarian resolved to fight to keep the cub, and his determination soon spread through the entire town.

On Sunday, 500 people turned out for a rally to, as one promoter put it, “keep the little bear in Big Bear.” More than 4,700 signatures have been gathered on petitions supporting the Walkers’ stand, and these, along with letters and telegrams, have been forwarded to the Department of Fish and Game.

Phone calls and written pleas have also been made of Gov. George Deukmejian. Mayor Bill Speyers, in a letter sent Monday, called Coco the “miracle bear cub” of Big Bear Valley and begged the governor to let her stay there.

Fish and Game officials are sympathetic to the emotions the cub has inspired. But they argue that wild creatures deserve the chance to live wild, and they believe Coco has a promising future in the natural environment.

“We feel this cub has a good chance to grow and live its life in the California forest, Taucher said.

If rehabilitation fails, he added, the bear would not be euthanized, as some Big Bear residents have warned, but could be returned to Walker.

At issue in next month’s court hearing will be Walker’s claim that he has established legal ownership of Coco by taming her. The veterinarian will rely on a law scarcely used since the 19th century, his lawyer said.

“The law says you can have ownership of animals wild in nature if they’re on your land, if you tame them or if you’re a hunter pursuing them,” attorney Michael McIntire said. “My client has raised this cub from birth and feeds her from a bottle every three hours. So he certainly believes he has tamed her.”

While the debate rages, Coco, now weighing 12 pounds, seems blissfully unaware of the ruckus. Walker said she spent Monday in peaceful seclusion, toddling about her enclosure in the family’s home and sucking milk from a bottle.