When we ask why they shoot instead of relocating bears who get the trash habit, the conservation officers tell us that there is virtually no unoccupied habitat in North America for black bears.

Local bears (who have to make a living too) will attack or harass the relocated bear until it leaves, is killed, or starves; or else the newcomer displaces one of the local bears from its territory and dooms that one in turn to the same fate. Is trapping and relocating then reasonable or humane?

There's serious effort under way in some bear-rich places, to train the human residents and visitors not to invite trouble with bears: education and planning (with fines up to five figures) for humans, and controlled harassment for individual problem bears. I think mindful people can coexist with bears about as safely as we can with fellow humans and a lot more safely than with automobiles. "But aversive conditioning only works if you secure all the garbage," says slingshot-wielding bear researcher Lori Holmstol, quoted in an article at http://www.bearsmart.com (great info for making both communities and individuals more bear friendly). That one person in a hundred who leaves garbage on a porch may teach a bear a deadly lesson.