Saskatchewan farmer kills two bears after catching one breaking into house

An 80-year-old farmer from Nipawin, Sask., says he had no choice but to kill two black bears after he caught one breaking into his house. (Photo by Susan Drury/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

NIPAWIN, Sask. — An 80-year-old farmer from Nipawin, Sask., says he had no choice but to kill two black bears after he caught one breaking into his house.

Robert (Bud) Jardine says he came home in the wee hours of the morning and saw a bunch of stuff had been dragged out of his house.

At first he thought it was raccoons, but when he realized the door to the freezer had been ripped off he realized he was dealing with something much larger.

He shone a light into the home and saw the bear but the bruin left and with the help of a passing conservation officer, Jardine patched up the broken window with a piece of plywood.

But he says a couple of hours later he awoke to the sound of plywood being torn and found the bear inside his house again.

He says he was able to shoot the animal, which he later found dead in the forest, and then killed a second bear he noticed near his shed as he walked home.

“You know at that time in the morning I would have been sleeping,” Jardine says. “If he came through the door, I knew he was going to kill me. I never saw a bear act like that before.”

Jardine says it’s not the first time he’s dealt with bears in and around his property.

“This happens occasionally. Twenty years ago I had declared war on them. My children were in danger. Nothing good was happening. I killed 11 bears in two days at that time.”