FINED $60,000 FOR FEEDING BEARS IN WHISTLER, BC

A woman from Whistler, B.C., has been fined the highest penalty under B.C.'s Wildlife Act for repeatedly feeding black bears.

Zuzana Stevikova was sentenced in North Vancouver Provincial Court earlier this week and has been penalized $60,000 in the precedent-setting case.

According to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, Stevikova had been purchasing up to 10 cases of apples, 50 pounds of carrots, and 15 dozen eggs on a weekly basis to feed black bears during the summer of 2018.

  Conservation officers were forced to put down three bears that had been frequenting the area and had become so habituated to human food and presence that they showed no fear of people.