Bear in Kennydale

This was the scene on NE 16th Street in Upper Kennydale this morning, as firefighters and animal control officers tried to figure out how to wrangle a black bear that had meandered it’s way around the neighborhood.

My council colleague Marcie Palmer kindly provided the email stories, with the details, below.

Here is a scene from looking down NE 16th street

photo thanks to Robbin Schoonmaker

————– Original message ————–
From: pkplmarcie@comcast.net 10:45 AM

Good morning Randy-
Here’s some breaking news—
Early this morning, about 6:15 AM, a mom who lives on Aberdeen Ave., looked out her window to quiet her barking dog and saw a large black bear. She called 911 immediately. The bear was seen up by Sunset Terrace as well as other locations in upper Kennydale.

At Kennydale Elementary, as the buses started dropping off students, there was great excitement as the kids told of their sightings of the bear, and 1 bus stop had to be relocated on NE 16th. There were all kinds of stories, getting wilder every minute. I happened to be upstairs in Michael’s 4th grade classroom (dropping off WASL snacks) when the kids came in all atwitter about the bear. When I went downstairs to the lobby & office, Kennydale Staff and parents were also excitedly talking about a possible bear as well as a “SWAT Team over on 16th”. I phoned City Hall, and talked with the police, who told me there was indeed a black bear, up a tree on 16th, which had been tranqualized and the police & firefighters on scene were waiting for the bear to fall out of the tree.

I drove over to 16th & Aberdeen, where police cars blocked access at Aberdeen to 16th. Renton’s ladder truck was there, as well as police, animal control and the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife. Everyone was amazed that a huge black bear was in Kennydale, and seemed to be quite at home in the area. The bear fell out of the tree with a huge thud but was still very much conscious. After 4 tranqualizer shots by Dept. of F&W officer, the bear was finally groggy enough to be put into the Animal Control truck. It took 6 men to lift the bear on a tarp into the truck. The Dept. of F&W officer said the bear would be taken to the wild and released, where his trained dog would bark at the bear and chase him further into the wild.

There was no media on scene, surprisingly since it had been 3 hours, but the neighbors were out watching the excitement with cameras in hand. They were kept back from the house where the bear was, which was disappointing to them but necessary for everyone’s safety. Our public safety staff were calm, though very surprised themselves, to be dealing with a bear in Kennydale of all places. I did go back to Kennydale Elem. to update Staff, so they could pass on the facts to the excited (& some scared) students and parents. The stories take on a life of their own in these kind of circumstances, & I wanted to reassure everyone they were safe and the bear would be well taken care away from Kennydale.

How’s that for reporting? I’m just sorry I didn’t have my camera.

Have a good day!

Marcie

________________________________________
Follow-up from Marcie at 2:30 PM:

As I was leaving City Hall, I ran into one of the police officers who was there this morning so I asked what they did with the bear. He said they put it in a “bear trap” (in King Co.?), a holding place, where a vet would look at before it’s released. I asked if the bear was hurt and he said yes, maybe a bad hip or broken back leg, “But don’t worry, he’s going to be just fine.”

The mascot for Kennydale Elem. is the Kodiak bear, and the principal, Mr. Tarter, thought it was ironic there was an actual live bear roaming around while his students waited for their school buses this morning. Kennydale does have it’s share of quirky stories and here’s one that folks won’t forget for a long time, especially the kids that saw it this morning!

Marcie