Police in Woodfin, N.C. closed a portion of an interstate highway on Tuesday, when a mother bear wandered on to the road, trying to retrieve the body of her cub killed by a vehicle.
Woodfin police closed the road, pulled the bear cub to the side of the highway, and stepped back and let the mother bear approach. The mother bear immediately “grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and pulled it off the roadway. She pulled it off into the woods. She was tending to it,” according to Sgt. Dawn Roberts.[social_buttons]
Mike Carraway, a North Carolina Wildlife Resources biologist, witnessed the scene and said the mother bear remained with the cub after pulling it into the woods. She was within sight of the highway holding the cub, he said.
Once PETA caught wind of this act, they awarded Woodfin police with a Compassionate Police Department Award.
“Thanks to the Woodfin police officers’ compassionate action, a mother bear was able to tend to her baby in peace,” said PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “Woodfin is very fortunate to have police officers who stand ready to protect the town’s human and wildlife residents.”
Photo Credit: Shayan (USA) on Flickr under Creative Commons license.