Three-Legged Bear Killed in North Carolina: Activists Angered After Homeowner Slays Playful, Garbage-Ravaging Cub

A playful, three-legged bear made an upscale housing community in Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina its very own playground over the summer, ravaging garbage cans and roaming around the private golf course of its own accord. Some homeowners in the area loved and protected the three-legged creature, treating him as their very own Yogi Bear - others were rather angry and disturbed by the cub's over-welcomed presence in their human environment. One family eventually had enough of over-turned garbage cans, and killed the bear in August. Now some animal activists are heatedly calling foul, and a community debate over how "nuisance bears" should be handled is currently in full-force.

According to reports, one Blue Ridge Mountains homeowner was completely fed up with the three-legged cub making garbage bins his very-own personal buffet - so promptly shot and killed the black bear in August before others could come to the young creature's rescue. Many supporters of the three-legged bear had initially tried to find proper sanctuary for the animal, but his life was cut short before activists could find him a safer home environment. Such animal rights advocates believe that the current policy regarding nuisance bears is an unfair one, and that such wild creatures temporarily displaced from their natural habitat should be better protected by law. If that were the case, the community's infamously adopted three-legged bear would still be alive today.

Activist Millie Bowling told ABC that the unnecessary animal slaying was part of a larger allowance to kill bears with impunity, which she considers a terrible thing - "When it comes to nuisance bears, the state's policy is simple: shoot them ... And that's just wrong. That needs to change."

Community member Leslie Hayhurst, who runs a local animal sanctuary, agrees - "The idea of shooting bears should be an absolute last resort."

But David Cobb, a member of the Division of Wildlife Management, believes that the growing number of black bears in North Carolina must be controlled, and that the three-legged bear's shooting was a legitimate action since the little cub had become a huge menace to a community where he did not belong - "This was an animal that had caused damage to property multiple times, and the property owners decided they were going to address that issue. And they did."

For now, the debate over nuisance bears rages on, and the popular three-legged "Yogi Bear" is no longer around to witness the outcome.