Several bears are put-down every year in Utah for losing their fear of humans; it was indeed unfortunate that a life was lost this time, but the public is simply uninformed if they think that bear encounters in Utah are rare. *Always* be prepared for a bear. The fact that more people haven't been mauled or killed is pure luck- as more people head to the great outdoors, encounters will become more frequent. A friend used to tell me when we were camping that he wasn't afraid of a bear; he would simply run away. I protested that he was in no way faster than a bear, to which he replied that he didn't have to be faster than the bear- just faster than me. On 7/2/07, Kurt Fisher <fisherka@csolutions.net> wrote:
I guess that unfortunate incident with the bear in American Fork a couple of weekends ago, coupled with the statewide fire prohibition drove everyone away.