WOODBURY — Elena Bowen was backing out of her door, heading to work one recent morning when suddenly the door slammed and she felt a black bear brush against her.
“I truly believe that if I did not get in my door as quickly as I did that he was going to attack me,” she said. “I now keep a rake next to the door.”
The bear ran down the steps while Bowen rushed back inside but the bear soon returned to the porch, standing outside of the storm door. Bowen tried yelling at the animal to get off her porch and called 911 for help when it didn’t leave, she said.
“He was right at the door looking at me. He was not a happy bear,” she said. “He was not a cuddly bear.”
When the bear started making noise — that’s when Bowen turned to the wasp spray. It took a couple sprays before he finally departed.
“He did not run off,” she said. “He just nonchalantly walked off.”
Article continues below this ad
So far this year there have been 1,573 reported bear conflicts statewide, according to Bill Flood, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s media relations manager. DEEP reported there were just over 3,000 in 2025.
DEEP Supervising Biologist Jason Hawley said Bowen’s first instinct — to try and scare it off by yelling — was the best option.
Hawley also recommended trying to scare the bear away with an air horn or banging on a pot and pan. If the noise doesn’t frighten the bear, he said to retreat back into the house and wait there.
While he understands the instinct to make the bear go away at any cost, Hawley said unless you are being actively attacked, DEEP does not recommend wasp spray. He cautioned that products like that could potentially make a bear go blind.
As an alternative, he suggested bear spray, a potent, non-lethal aerosol deterrent. Shooting a bear with a paintball gun — as long as it is not in their face — can also work. While it may sound cruel, Hawley said doing so will help bears become less acclimated to humans and more naturally fearful.
The fact that the bear initially backed up after bumping into Bowen is a good sign as it indicates it has some fear of humans, Hawley added.
“You gotta think in Connecticut, all bears are habituated to a certain level,” he said. “We prefer bears not get that close to people to begin with. But the fact that it was startled was a good thing.”
Bears, Hawley said, do not in fact like people but put up with them for a “big caloric reward.”
“Where can they get as many calories as possible? Well, that tends to be around humans. Whether it’s compost that they get into, garbage, bird feeders,” he said. “So, from a bear’s perspective, not only do they really not have anything to fear from humans, they’re actually having positive experiences every time they interact with humans.”
And, encounters are on the rise, according to both Hawley’s DEEP data and Bowen’s personal experiences living in Woodbury for the past 26 years.
Hawley said a woman in Farmington left her children in the backyard with their older sibling and went in the house. Once upstairs, she looked out the window to see her child holding an ice pop out while a bear licked it.
Bowen said she recently saw a man hosing down a bear next to a kiddie pool.
That type of action will habituate a bear to humans and the animal will likely end up too close too often, Hawley said.
“They’ll then start going into people’s houses. They might start following people around,” he said.
“And then you know that bear might be deemed a public safety risk, and have to be euthanized, so it’s extremely selfish because most of those people know it’s not good for the bear. But selfishly, they want to be near that bear and interact with them so, I don’t know of any other way to put it except selfish.”
The solution?
Bowen and Hawley believe it’s time for a bear hunt.
He noted that some people are concerned about the deaths of individual animals and not looking at the full picture. He said it would not be about hunters killing to get a trophy bear — and it would be better than euthanasia.
“Hunters use the resource, they use the meat,” he said. “They use the fur from the animal.”
Under the current approach, if a bear is euthanized, it undergoes an autopsy and is then thrown into a compost pit, Hawley said.
“We’re the only state that has, like, a significant established bear population without hunting,” Hawley said.
He said eventually population management will be necessary, adding, “It’s just a matter of how bad we’re willing to let it get before we do.”
Hawley said western Connecticut has a dense population of bears and while the Connecticut River Valley has acted to a degree as a barrier, the population is slowly expanding eastward.
Rep. Mike Demicco, D-Farmington, is a vocal opponent to a bear hunt.
Demicco, a member of the Environment Committee and former co-chair, said the committee has debated various bills on bears, including hunting them. But, he said, legislators have seen “significant evidence” demonstrating that killing or hunting bears does not reduce conflicts between humans and bears.
“If we can educate people and insist on people not making those food sources available, you’re going to see a reduction,” he said. “Studies have shown this.”
Hawley disagrees.
While education helps bring down the numbers of conflicts, only about 60% of people comply with recommended safety measures, he said.
“Compliance is never going to be 100%,” he said. “Human nature is still lazy.”
Demicco does not think compliance rates should be a deterrent. He noted legislators frequently pass laws knowing they won’t be followed 100%, including against shoplifting and speeding.
As for bear hunts, Demicco said they often take place in more remote portions of the state while the dangerous encounters are in urban and suburban areas.
Going after the wrong bears, he said, will not solve the problem.
“In my opinion, bears are majestic animals, part of our environment,” he said. “We need to learn to co-exist with them. Education, and smart planning, are essential.”