In this Nov. 17, 2020, file photo, Grizzly bear 399 and her four cubs feed on a deer carcass in southern Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Federal investigators have decided not to pursue charges against a woman suspected of illegally feeding the grizzly bears at her home in Jackson Hole. The woman denied that food was put out for grizzlies, only moose. Feeding grizzlies is illegal but feeding moose is legal in Wyoming.

February 22, 2021 8:00 AM
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — On a Friday afternoon last October, game warden Brian DeBolt and federal special agent Steve Stoinski drove to the Solitude Subdivision in response to a report of a resident feeding grizzly bears.

Arriving at the home in the neighborhood near Jackson Hole Airport, the law enforcement officers immediately saw evidence confirming the allegations. Grizzly 399 and her four cubs were in the yard as they pulled up.

DeBolt, with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and Stoinski, with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, watched as a woman standing in the yard talked on a cell phone. She appeared "very excited" about the famous grizzly family's presence, the officers reported, according to documents obtained by the Jackson Hole News&Guide through a records request.

The five bears, meanwhile, stood clustered near a deck, eating molasses-enriched grain from a black tub and out of hollow stumps of wood. "Numerous" birds and squirrels joined in feeding "right alongside" the bears at the Bambi-esque scene, the officers observed.

As the resident approached the grizzlies famously habituated by their upbringing in Grand Teton National Park, she greeted them by saying: "Hi babies, hi babies!"

Concerned for her safety, the officers asked her to not move any closer, the News & Guide reported.

"Oh come on!" the woman retorted. "You people are a bunch of (wimps)."

The woman later told officers she had "an aura" that both allowed her to communicate with animals and also prevented her from being hurt or attacked. But if she was attacked, she told them she was "OK" with being killed.

Both inside and outside the home, the officers gathered photographic, audio and video evidence of the grizzlies eating grain, a potential violation of the Endangered Species Act.

"If you're interrupting feeding behavior, that's a problem," Fish and Wildlife's grizzly recovery coordinator, Hilary Cooley, told the News&Guide in January.

As the conversation at the Solitude Subdivision residence progressed, the officers recorded the woman in denial of putting out molasses-enriched grain, even while they watched the grizzly family eat the pellets.

"I never really noticed it," she told DeBolt and Stoinski.

Any feed that had been put out, the woman told them, was for moose. That grain, she said, was even medicated to help treat what she described as conjunctivitis.

This exchange appears to have doomed the investigation.

Feeding moose in Wyoming is legal, although it's discouraged by biologists and is technically prohibited both through Teton County's planning and zoning regulations and the Solitude Subdivision homeowner's association ordinances.

Six weeks later, an assistant attorney at the U.S. District Court of Wyoming discussed the case with someone in the criminal division. The attorneys concluded they would have a "difficult time convicting" the Jackson Hole resident of feeding grizzlies because she stated she placed feed for moose, and not the bears. With that, the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute. Absent violations of state law, they recommended the case be closed.

The plight of DeBolt and Stoinski's case highlights the difficulty of prosecuting and stopping backyard wildlife feeding in Wyoming, where the state legislature has declined on multiple occasions to criminalize an activity that's often condemned by wildlife managers.

Rep. Andy Schwartz, a Teton County Democrat, has attempted to pass a state law banning such wildlife feeding. He last introduced a bill when the Wyoming Legislature convened in 2016. That bill did not make it out of committee because conservative Republican lawmakers were not interested in infringing on people's private property rights, Schwartz told the News&Guide.

Ordinarily, animals being fed are species like deer and moose, which lead anonymous lives in the wild. In this case, the animals being fed include those little-known individual ungulates. But now they also include a family of grizzly bears that has amassed a global fame.

The decision not to prosecute is detailed in a lengthy investigation report that was closed in January. The News&Guide acquired the document through a Freedom of Information Act request. Almost all identifying information of those involved — including law enforcement officers and attorneys — was redacted from the report, although the newspaper was able to piece together many of the different individuals involved.

The Solitude homeowner investigated is among those who have been identified, and she declined an interview for this story. Her identity is not being disclosed because charges were dropped by federal prosecutors and also because of the high-profile nature of the matter, amplified by the celebrity status of Grizzly 399.

The recent investigation found evidence of eight grizzly bears getting into feed at the Solitude home site, including multiple generations of grizzlies born to Grizzly 399.

It was the feeding of a now-adult offspring from a previous litter, Grizzly Bear 962, that launched the investigation into the Solitude Subdivision feeding operation. DeBolt and Game and Fish Bear Biologist Mike Boyce alerted Stoinski on Oct. 12 that GPS data from a tracking collar fitted to the 3.5-year-old female bruin suggested the animal had been frequenting the property for at least two weeks. They provided a Google Earth map with waypoints as evidence.

In a subsequent federal investigation report, federal special agents wrote that feeding grizzlies, which are classified as "threatened," violates the Endangered Species Act.

"Of greater concern was that (the resident's) feeding of grizzly bears in her subdivision could endanger herself, other people and the bears," the law enforcement officer wrote.

That warning proved prescient.

Before officers began an enforcement case, Boyce, who knew the resident, went to try to talk her out of feeding while bears were in the area. She told him on Oct. 13 that a small cinnamon-colored black bear had been around but disputed that there had been grizzly bear activity on her property. When Boyce asked her to stop and told her that feeding could endanger the bears by leading to dangerous habits, she replied, "I don't want anything to happen to the bears."

Boyce thought she took his guidance seriously, according to the documents. But 10 days later, DeBolt got back in touch with his federal counterparts to say that Grizzly Bear 962 was still frequenting the property. Additionally, DeBolt passed word that another grizzly and a black bear were also being drawn to the neighborhood. That same day, a Teton Park biologist alerted Game and Fish that Grizzly 399 and her four cubs were seen in the Meadow Road area — one subdivision to the north.

When the two law enforcement officers went to confront the Solitude wildlife feeder that afternoon, the famous grizzly family was in her yard.

Although it's discouraged in Wyoming and illegal in many states, wildlife feeding can become a way of life for its most ardent practitioners. Backyard feeding becomes a daily routine and significant financial investment for folks who are convinced that they're acting in the animals' best interests. It's clear from the federal investigation report that the Solitude Subdivision feeder fits the description. She told officers that animals "came to her" when they needed help and that she even administers drugs to wildlife despite knowing she's not legally allowed to do so.

"She said she provides the moose with 'massages' and she even picks the ticks off the moose," the report said. "She said she does anything the animals ask of her."

The feeding operation is large enough it's obvious to anyone traveling through the neighborhood in the winter — moose and deer are everywhere. Game and Fish has taken advantage of this, even incorporating the property into their annual "classification counts" of big game species like moose. During a February 2018 helicopter flight, there were 10 moose counted by the house. Last winter there were a dozen.

There's also a track record of bears taking advantage of the subdivision feeding just south of the national park, and then later getting into trouble. A conflict-ridden 9-year-old grizzly known by the research number 802 was destroyed last summer, four years after Boyce first trapped the bear in the neighborhood. The bear, according to emailed correspondence, had been "visiting her place for years."

"After we relocated 802 in 2016 he returned to Jackson, resumed his conflict behavior and was involved in dozens of conflicts involving livestock feed across the valley," Boyce wrote in an email to Stoinski. "It became very concerning when he began breaking into homes, barns and outbuildings in his attempts to get livestock feed and garbage."

Grizzly 964 is another offspring born to the famous sow confirmed to have zeroed in on the same property based on GPS location data. The bear, of famous lineage, learned dangerous behavior that wasn't tolerated.

"964's GPS collar clustered at (the resident's) place last fall," Boyce wrote. "Shortly after she began hitting bird feeders at homes south of Solitude. We jumped on the situation and quickly moved her.

"Don't think it is a coincidence that 964 and 962 are siblings, the offspring of 399 and then all of them have been hanging at the (resident's) property."

Grizzly 789, a collared 11-year-old male, is another bruin that Boyce has tied to the Solitude situation.

The high concentration of grizzly bears in a residential neighborhood has not been welcomed by all. The Solitude Subdivision homeowner's association filed complaints with Game and Fish last year, right around the time that Grizzly 399 and her litter passed through. Individual complaints also were lodged with federal investigators.

"In my 25 years in Solitude, we've never had bear problems like we are having this fall and winter," wrote one Solitude board member, whose name was redacted. "We would like to know if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to do anything about (the resident) continuing to feed animals — including grizzly bears. This puts us all, including the animals, in danger."

Another resident experienced that danger firsthand.

A family walk along a path that led back from the Snake River on Nov. 24 turned into a mad dash away from a bear that the party believed was a grizzly, which came charging at them.

"I could see it had a broad head, was a light brown with blond highlights, had a noticeable hump, and that it was running very fast," the resident reported via email to Game and Fish. "I yelled for the family to go over the fence so the bear could stay on the trail."

As they scampered away — which is not recommended — the reporting party saw the reason for the charge. A cub was up a cottonwood tree nearby.

"We prayed for help," the person wrote, "and the bear stopped chasing us."

When the wildlife feeder agreed to let Stoinski and DeBolt in her home, they noticed numerous dogs, cats and rodents kept in cages. At least 10 large tin cans full of grain were observed. The woman, the officers reported, kept a collection of bear scat, which was stored on cookie sheets.

While inside, they took more photos and videos of Grizzly 399 and her cubs, which continued to take advantage of the feed.

"The officers spoke with (the resident) for nearly two hours," Fish and Wildlife's report said, "and in that time the bears fed on this grain throughout the entire interview."

The resident continued to deny that she had put out any grain anytime since being admonished by Boyce 10 days prior. All the while, the bears kept eating. Before they broke off the conversation, the state and federal law enforcement officers told her she was violating the Endangered Species Act.

"The officers said that based on (Boyce's) warning to not feed bears, the amount of grain the officers saw out on (the) deck and the ground, the five grizzlies feeding, the volume of grain stored in tin containers and (the resident's) admission about feeding wildlife, (Stoinski) told (the resident) that a report of their findings would be provided to the U.S. Attorney's office documenting feeding of grizzly bears," the report said. "She was reminded that she had ownership in the fate of the bears because she was feeding the bears."

She told them she "understood."

The week that followed, Grizzly 399 and her four cubs continued moving away from Grand Teton National Park, embarking on a fraught monthlong journey through the southern, privately owned reaches of Jackson Hole. The grizzly family during that time scavenged elk carcasses but also continued to take advantage of backyard food sources, gorging on livestock grain, a compost pile and wiping out honey from a beekeeper's colony. Those instances of grizzly feeding were deemed inadvertent and were not investigated.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's law enforcement office did not respond to an interview request for this story.

Game and Fish Regional Supervisor Brad Hovinga said that, short of wildlife feeding being criminalized in the state, his staff's hands are tied.

"Like any other wildlife feeding operation in the county, we don't have any authority to do anything about it," he said. "We try to focus on education."

Teton County, which has prohibited wildlife feeding through its land development regulations, is another governmental entity that could take enforcement action against the feeder, who has been the subject of numerous complaints. Multiple calls to the county's code compliance officer, Josh Butteris, have not been returned.

While grizzly bears have denned for the winter, wildlife feeding at Solitude Subdivision persists.

On Tuesday afternoon, at least four moose and a mule deer now occupied the yard where Grizzly 399, her four cubs and other grizzlies have previously gorged on grain

So Treadwell had a sister.

I'd like to see atse's take on this.

Maybe she can get the local PETA club to come over and pet them.

Somehow I get the impression this won't end well for the lady.........

Me either, and I don't know chit about grizzlies.

I wouldn't want be her neighbor!

"Works for me!"
T. Treadwell

Fish and Game is probably banking on it.

Here is a listing for one of the 20 homes in her subdivision.

https://www.jacksonhole-real-estate...on-wy-83001-single-family-home-for-sale/

If they tried to prosecute they know they'd have a exspensive legal battle to challenge in the courts the way the law is written.

The situation will take care of itself soon enough.

Just hope she's the first to be eaten then they can kill this screwed up family of bears, they have made headlines for far to long when they've come into contact with people that go there just to seek them out.

Grizz 399 has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Reminds me of Betty White in Lake Placid.

Not my area of expertise. I deal with livestock conflicts. Work for the USDA. But here is my 2 cents. Wyoming needs to change its wildlife feeding laws. That crazy cat woman is jeopardizing her neighbors by habituating those grizzlies. When they lose their fear of man they become more dangerous. I don't like bears much, and I don't like them habituated around people. A bad combo. Once those bears learn bad behavior, ie getting into garbage, bird feeders, livestock, bee hives ect. they never forget, and often repeat. Would love to see a hunting season, with some of these habituated bears targeted by hunters. A win win in my opinion.

We had one of those up the road a few miles, amazingly the bears ate her food then moved on to her.

"Government officials piss away money in a pointless endeavor. Story at 11:00."

She’s bat-5h!t crazy. I’ve spent a lot of time in her neighborhood and she starting to attract tourists now. They are going to have to shut her down somehow. Between the moose and the bears, that area is not a place to walk without being super careful.

How old is this bear whisperer and how many acres of land does she own ?

As long as she doesn't have an outhouse they live in . . .

Those bears should be shot fir illegally eating moose food.

Bb

We have a minor issue near us. No bears, just plenty of deer. One person right nearby feeds the birds, and either has a water trough or a trough filled with seed for the birds. ALways have to watch closely when coming and going on that road near that house. Mentioned it to a local and was told she's "feeding the birds" California Fish and Wildlife has rules against feeding "wildlife" but it's OK to feed birds. I do even, enough for them to clean up by noon every day in most cases. And they get Thursday and Sunday off so they have to be birds and forage elsewhere.

Apparently, folks have called the Wardens on this person with the trough, and been told she's "feeding the birds" and therefor there's nothing they can do.

Here's the issue, right here in the article:

(My bold and red color for emphasis)

As long as "legislators" are in ultimate control of wildlife (and fish) decisions instead of the experts in the field we'll continue to have these conflicts. Whether it's bears in WY, or deer in neighborhoods with an increase in auto insurance claims, not everyone will be happy.

As far as I know, in Cali the County Boards of Supervisors have the say so over there being an antlerless deer season or not. The game biologist responsible for managing the local herd has no say so, the folks (farmers/ranchers/homeowners) etc have no say so if the herd gets too large locally. Increase the antlered tags, and the population of does and fawns still can increase.

And can anyone imagine the uproar from the bird seed companies if feeding birds was outlawed?

Interesting conundrum, eh?

Didn’t read the full report.

Cliff notes, please....Did the bears eat the aura outta this women?

🦫

Thanks, Bart.

Cliff notes.

Not yet.

but if not her in the near future, then a neighbor for sure.

Grizz 399 is 26 years old, she'll be breaking the odds if she survives another winter.

Hell shoot the old sow right there in the other old son's back yard. See if she takes a lesson from that.

It'd be the perfect year to harvest her and those Cubs.
Not only could you make a nice bedspread of her hide but you'd get four matching pillows to go with it.

The cheapest thing that could be done is for Fish and game to put an electric fence around this twits property, bears don't like electric.

If you put food out and bears come and eat it then you are feeding bears. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Especially if they can document those bears eating her grain on multiple occasions. I’d be pissed if I lived in that neighborhood. It’s bad enough all the dumbasses that feed cats around me. Can’t imagine having to deal with people feeding bears.

No, the cheapest thing is to shoot the bears while she's watching.

Now, or later, human conditioned bears are gonna end up dead. Either before or after they kill a human.

Its 2021, the time for shooting is long past, the uproar would like BLM , thats "Bears Lives Matter" put the dumb bitch in a cage just fence everything out of her property so all can see what stupid can do to your life !

Yeah they just put out a trap, catch the bear, and take it out in the woods and shoot it now... away from prying eyes.

I think they release them in very remote areas once.

But statistics show it doesn't work over 75% of the time, and the bears that continue to come back to town are put down.

Shoulda stood and watched her secure her Darwin Award nomination

A little Temik sprinkled on the moose feed would take care of all of the problems.

This is really bad news.

Unless something changes, someone is going to get hurt. A sow with cubs compounds the situation.

If I was a neighbor, I might look into a suppressor and then find the deepest lake around.

LOL.

Careful there! That's top secret stuff there. I have a bag laying around somewhere.. You know... For all the cotton I plant here at the ranch.

appearing soon in a scat pile near you.

Obviously a death wish.

Why can’t they relocate that poor bear to somewhere like, Detroit? Or even Chicago???

I'd pay to watch that!

Temik takes care of all sorts of problems. Birds eating seeds , coyotes , careless applicators , neighbors dogs that bark all night. I’m positive some on the moose feed would clear up that situation too...
It’s a shame you can’t buy it anymore.

Is she related to the late Timmy Treadwell? He thought he had that invincible aura around him, too, but it turned out to be steak sauce.

That article is way too long for that much stupid.

We have become a nation of idiots, individuals and agencys

All those animals have to be causing a fly problem...

Bet if you got caught trying to fix a problem, you would be crucified.
Unlike the idiot who caused it.


Fuuckin' rich people.

A Redneck would shoot the dam moose, eat it, and quit
wasting money on horse feed.

Are they chinee?

Maybe that will make crazy lady look like an especially tasty entree next Fall.

So when are the bears going to break into her home to get the feed and critters stored therein?

I wouldnt wish that on any dumb animal, except maybe for Piddler and Northmam.

One day that woman's "aura" will smell just like Grizzly scat.

ha ha ha

Wouldn't work. Put a Griz or Black bear in So. Chicago and that bear wouldn't last through the night. Those dudes there are shooters!!

L.W.

LOL. He had an "aura" too until he didn't.

I thought this story was going to go another way from the title. Here we have PETA going out and dumping corn in the water in front of people's duckblinds. Makes the place unhuntable. $50 of corn to ruin an entire season.

FWIW Wyoming is hiring game wardens right now if you know anyone who might be a good candidate.

Rich neighborhood, eh? If they are so concerned, they could take turns suing the birdseed out of her until she quits. DLOP on the bears also
is a possibility, but those twerks are probably all anti gun...

How many moved there from CA, OR, or WA? Not that they have exclusion on Bambi-conditioned wildlife-feeding idiots.

A rose by any other name.....


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LMAO.

"The woman, the officers reported, kept a collection of bear scat, which was stored on cookie sheets."

I mean okay if you were like maybe hanging out with her.... toking on the best stuff ever grown...listening to tunes you might kind of go, hey cool she can actually commune with animal vibes in their aura.... but then you walk past that kitchen counter and be like, "Oh hey, what the 'F' Suzy?".