URSUS non grata

Local defends right to protect property against bear.
Jenny Smith routinely encounters bears around her house on Joaquin Street. “I have two bears that frequent my house every night. The big bear that lives in the culvert at the golf course and this little one,” Smith said in an interview with the Sheet.
On Friday June 28 around 7 p.m. the small bear was in her yard before climbing into a neighbor’s tree. “I had my niece on a video call trying to show her the bear,” Smith said. “But then I felt like it was time to get it out of the tree because it doesn’t belong here.”
Smith grabbed her roommate’s Red Rider BB Gun off the porch and began shooting the branches of the tree.
“I grabbed his toy off the porch and whoever called it in thought it was a real shotgun,” Smith said. “I probably shot the tree three times [and then Town Wildlife Specialist Steve] Searles came ripping into my driveway saying ‘put the weapon down, and put the safety on.’ There isn’t a safety. It’s a toy.”
Steve Searles said he was alerted to Smith using a gun via text messages by a neighbor watching out of their window. “The texts coming in referred to a pump gun,” he said. “I saw her shouldering a rifle as I drove up. I couldn’t tell what kind of gun it was.”
Searles called Mono County dispatch and Officers Reynolds and Ramos, as well as, Fish and Game Warden Estrada, responded to the call. Searles wrote Smith up for unlawfully discharging a firearm within town limits. Searles’s report, along with the ticket for an infraction, has been sent to the District Attorney’s office for review. There could be an additional charge of a misdemeanor for harassment of wildlife, MLPD said.
“I believe this situation was blown out of proportion,” Smith said. She had just gotten off work at Mammoth Rock and Dirt, where she works full time construction. She also bartends at the Clocktower Cellar and is on a leave of absence from the Mammoth Lakes Fire Department, where she worked for five years.
“I’ve shot a gun at a shooting range,” Smith said. “But the fact that [a BB gun] is considered a firearm blows my mind.”
According to the Town’s municipal code, BB guns, pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, crossbows, compressed air guns and pellet guns are all considered firearms. “It could be a Nerf gun. That uses compressed air. Where is the line drawn?” asked Smith.
Smith said she was a vegan for eight years until just recently and won’t even kill a spider in the house. “I wasn’t shooting any bears, I was shooting the tree that the bear is in,” she said. “Just trying to rustle him, wake him up and get him out.”
“Going up into a tree is a sign of submissiveness,” Searles said. “He was doing what he naturally does.” There was a social media contest recently to name the bear cub, whose name is now Scout. He is one of two boy cubs in town that are 16 months old. “He was weaned four weeks ago,” Searles said. “He’s blond, over blond. He’s 70 pounds and has big brown eyes. Most people have seen at least one of them.”
Smith, who homebrews beer on her front porch, said she regularly has bear prints on her car in the morning and she recently saw a bear dragging her grill off her porch “I have bear lure every night. The beer boils over and it dries on the outside,” she said. “They grab your stuff and walk away with it. They are relentless and they are fearless.”
Smith had the Harassment of Wildlife penal code with her when she talked to the Sheet. Harassment is defined as “an intentional act, which disrupts an animal’s normal behavior.” It goes on to say that it “does not apply to a landowner or tenant who drives or herds birds or mammals for the purposes of preventing damage to private or public property.”
“I’m from upstate New York, where you protect your property. This bear is not welcome on my property. As far as I knew, I’m allowed to protect my property and my belongings,” Smith said. “That bear is just waiting for me to walk in my house so it can come down and just ravage all of our belongings again. And I don’t want it to feel like it’s okay for it to be on my property.”
“What qualifications does Searles have? He gets to pick and choose what he gets to shoot?” she asked.
“There’s a TV show out where Searles shoots bears on every show.”
Searles acknowledged that he does shoot bears with beanbags or if they are injured and need to be put down. “But I’ve never lethally shot a bear because of public safety or damage to property,” Searles defended. “I do use non-lethal means, but I’ve never in my entire career shot a bear in a tree. And we don’t use non-lethal force on cubs until they reach a certain size.”
Smith said she was unaware that shooting a BB gun within town limits was illegal. After the incident on Friday, she went online and couldn’t find anything on Visit Mammoth, the Town website, or MLPD website that discusses the use of firearms in the Town. “I’ve never had one violation, not one incident in this town. I asked for a warning because this is ridiculous,” Smith said. She also said she apologized directly to everyone on Friday night: “I told them, ‘I’m really sorry guys that you all have to be here.’ If I had known it was illegal I wouldn’t have done it.”
Smith said that no one asked her for a statement at the scene and was angry she wasn’t allowed to see Searles’s report. She also doesn’t know how much the fines will be and is waiting to receive notice in the mail from the District Attorney. “I think I should have a right to see the report that was written about me. And make my own statement,” Smith said.
Smith’s neighbor, Ryan Eggleson, was also watching the bear and taking pictures. “We were stoked on seeing him. We were pumped on the nature aspect of it,” he said. “I leave for ten minutes and the freaking Calvary showed up.” Eggleson was not present when Smith was using the gun, but tried to talk to MLPD and Searles on the scene. “They didn’t want any part of my story,” Eggleson said.
“Legally sure. There was a BB gun involved. But if you didn’t know that about town it was a bit of an over-reaction,” he said. “As far as actually doing something wrong? Heck no. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. As far as disturbing the wildlife? Are you kidding me?”
“Seeing a bear pass through your property in Mammoth Lakes is a very common thing, and something that most of us enjoy,” Searles said. He advised people: “Please don’t take matters into your own hands. If a bear is causing any trouble call, call me. Don’t shoot the bear.”
After writing Smith the ticket, Searles left Scout in the tree. “Bears spend over half of their time in a tree,” he said. “That’s where bears sleep to stay safe.
“As soon as the sun went down, the bear came right down,” Smith said. “He was hanging from the tree trying to decide if he should come down and then he just scurried away.”
Smith doesn’t want to make any local agencies look bad and wants people in Town to know what happened. “I want to be more of an informant. This is what happened to me. It may be ridiculous. Or not. You make your opinion. [But] if you didn’t know that kids toys are considered guns too, now you do.”
Since when was a BB Gun considered a “toy?” What planet are you living on, Ms. Smith? And you live in Mammoth and question whether any bear has the right to be here? You think a bear “doesn’t belong in a tree?” I followed this story on Facebook and most people (erroneously, it turns out), assumed the person who shot at Scout was a tourist. Shame on you for being a Mammoth local and shooting a bear with ANY weapon of ANY kind.
I only regret this crime is considered a misdemeanor. If I was the judge, I would make this a felony and throw her in jail. In addition, Ms. Smith’s gratuitous swipes at Steve Searles won’t make her any friends. Steve lives right around the corner from you and deserves the affection and respect he gets from us locals. If you can’t appreciate his service to our community and to our beloved bears, there’s thousands of others who DO.
Hey John, can you read? If you can, try reading the part where Ms. Smith said she was shooting at BRANCHES to get him to leave. You make a lot of assumptions about this situation and to wish you yourself could be the judge and throw her in jail? Wow, what an unbiased joy you must be to hang with you bad ass “local”…
Obviously you’re Smith posting under a transparent and poorly disguised alias. Oh wait— I don’t see myriad misspellings, so perhaps you’re merely her puppet and not the genuine article.
Yeah, I read the piece in its entirity and only a cretin would support Smith’s position (as Gomer Pyle would say, “surprise, surprise!”) Oh, so she “shot at branches” to get Scout to vacate. Guess what? It’s still a misdemeanor. Guess what? She’s still committing a crime which 99.9% of Mammoth locals will decry and revile. She’s still shooting at a bear and describing a weapon as a “toy.” You obviously aren’t a local, you’re probably a hunter and definitely have the intelligence level of someone on the par with Smith.
So if some illiterate Bozo shot a BB gun at one of your kids, you’d take up the stump to support them? Um… no. Epic fail.
Thank God you are not a Judge. More like Judge Dregg. Ignoramious;
I hope a bear breaks out all your car windows John…
Ummmmm….guns of any type have ALWAYS been illegal within town limits.
Have lived in Mammoth for over a decade and it’s common knowledge. She’s
a firefighter and knows that, she is playing stupid. Bears are common,
we all know that…and we all know that if you leave food…or beer…on
your deck a bear will come. Come on Jenny, you know better. Shame on
you! I know Jenny and she is a renegade…she deserves what she gets.
Guns are not illegal in Mammoth town limits, I can only assume you mean firing one. I’ve lived in town well over a decade and did not know that firing a pellet gun in town results in a misdemeanor charge. If you charge someone with a misdemeanor crime there had better be some damages or a good reason for doing so.. Using laws this way is lazy and punitive and it fosters distrust in a small community. I really hope the court throws this out.
John, read and try to comprehend a simple newspaper article. And what’s the “live around the corner” and “affection’ reference mean? Is that a threat or do you mean I should be affectionate with people who live in close proximity to my property.Thankfully, you do not have the skill set to ever be a judge
Some BB guns are legal, some are not. It depends on if they are spring loaded or compressed air. Firearms obviously are not legal in town limits, and yes….everyone can add that up on their own with common sense. -Unless you have done your research, half the population of this town would even have it cross their mind that a simple BB Gun could make it to that list. I guess it could be perhaps most of the people in this town are implants and did not have the same local legislation? As for them being involed with the fire department- Can you tell me this- Is there a training based on legal/illegal forms of firearms for this town? Does this person respond to calls involving firearms? Or are you getting your agency’s mixed up? I own a BB Gun. Because of Federal standards, it has never crossed my mind that, if used with compressed air, it is illegal to use in town. I will be trading mine in for a spring loaded, so that I can allow the kids to continue to use them in town.
I would like to make 2 points. 1) The gun was a Daisy pellet gun, identified by Police Chief Watson. Regardless, firing of BB guns and Pellet guns are illegal in ML. A BB can take out an eye, can become embedded and become infected, and is against the law.
2) Jenny Smith makes beer outside her home, a sure way to attract wildlife. She states bears are “relentless”. Smith is relentless about not sharing a neighbors tree. She thinks Scout is cute enough to video, but not cute enough to leave alone.
Smith probably gets her food from Vons or a restaurant. Bears have to gather food and this year is a drought year. Some bears will die this year and more will die if humans intervene to harm them more. Jenny Smith, get some education. Read about bears. Ask Steve about bears and the police about firearms. Do the right thing for all species and stop being so self centered. Bears are not for your entertainment until you get tired and want them to go away. They are smart wonderful animals that we are lucky to have in the Sierra Nevadas. It is bear territory. Humans killed off the other species like the California Grizzly. Please do not be part of the humans who want to kill Scout and the tiny population we have around Mammoth.