Two out-of-state visitors who were vacationing in Gatlinburg this summer have pleaded guilty in Sevier County court for charges of intentionally feeding a black bear.
On Friday, July 8, Billy Harden, 40, and Dawn Cantrell, 27, from Nashville, In., were vacationing at 417 Silverbell Ln. in Gatlinburg when they and their two juvenile children decided to hand feed a yearling black bear. After posting photos of the act on Facebook, a local news station picked up the story, which was brought to the attention of TWRA.
Wildlife Officer Scott Reasor, who is assigned to Gatlinburg as the bear enforcement officer, responded to the area and cited both Harden and Ms. Cantrell for feeding a black bear. They appeared in Sevier County General Sessions Court on Oct. 27 and pleaded guilty to the charges. Judge Dwight Stokes assessed fines of $200 each with adjoining court costs of $270 each.
Officer Reasor said, “Feeding bears eventually results in them becoming completely habituated to approaching people and ultimately becoming dependent on humans as a food source. Once this happens, they lose interest in natural foraging and have to be removed from that environment and in some extreme cases, euthanized.”
This year, TWRA has documented 603 black bear incidents as of September. The majority of these cases were simple bear sightings, yet others range from garbage issues and property damage to bears struck by vehicles and orphaned cubs. Fortunately, TWRA has only reported four incidents involving aggressive bears.
In recent years, two separate incidents reveal just how dangerous the intentional feeding of bears can be. In 2009, a 74-year-old woman in Colorado, who had previously been warned against feeding bears by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, was found mauled to death and partially eaten by a black bear in her back yard. In 2015, an 85-year-old woman from Montana was attacked inside her home by a bear she had been actively feeding. She died from her injuries within days of the attack.