In the first five months of the year, the City of Coquitlam has already issued hundreds of warnings and five dozen tickets to residents leaving bear attractants lying around.
A city spokesperson told CTV News so far this year urban wildlife bylaw officers had issued 339 warnings to those living in bear-prone areas as of this week.
Allowing bears to access attractants, such as garbage, fruit, dog food and compost comes with a $500 fine. So far, 62 such penalties have been issued.
Officials have responded to more than 250 bear-related calls.
For comparison, there were 85 tickets issued around this time last year, and 386 warnings. The city said it wasn't ready to say people are getting the message, but that there were signs of improvement when compared to 2017.
This year, wildlife officers will also be applying stickers to any unsecure garbage or green bins put out prior to 5:30 a.m. on collection days.
The stickers advise homeowners they've violated bylaw 4679, and that a $500 fine is pending. Officers will then write in the date and time of the alleged violation.
CTV reached out to the city after a Facebook post directed to the mayor flagged an incident in the Chineside neighbourhood. The post by Yanny Ong to Richard Stewart showed a bear eating what appeared to be raw meat.
Ong told CTV News she and her husband spotted the bear eating what appeared to be a whole, raw chicken carcass in her backyard. She took video of the bear and reported the sighting through the provincial hotline.
She said the bruin likely found its snack in a neighbour's garbage can, though it was not collection day in their area.
"We need to take responsibility for the wildlife that we cohabitate with and we need to make sure we can live safely with them for both our sakes," she said.
Ong said her neighbours moved to the Lower Mainland last fall and may not have lived in an area with potential bear encounters in the past. She said she'd give them a heads-up about the city's strict wildlife-related policies.
The city spokesperson said she'd not heard of the specific incident, but that it served as a reminder to the public that bears are out of hibernation and looking for food.
Those living in any area black bears are known to frequent are reminded to keep garbage and compost securely stored at all times. Attractants like pet food, bird feeders and ripe fruit from fruit trees should not be accessible to wildlife, and barbecues should be kept clean.
The city overhauled its collection schedule earlier this year to help cut down on conflicts with bears, so areas most likely to have encounters are serviced first.
More information on wildlife management, and the possible penalties for not managing waste correctly, is available on the city's website.
Last year, the number of bear sightings in the first six months was three times higher than the norm for the Lower Mainland. The vast majority of the 2,000 reports filed by late June were related to garbage.
Conservation officers say this year's number of bear-human encounters is down slightly compared to last, but that staff still receive more than a dozen calls a day. They've had to put down more than 10 black bears already this year, and most could have been avoided if people had been more careful.
"A lot of times, it's problem humans as opposed to problem bears," said field officer Nicole Caithness.
"Human behaviour directly leads to poor bear behaviour, because they are incredibly intelligent and curious animals and they're very food driven."
With files from CTV Vancouver's Sheila Scott and Ben Miljure
