Idaho boy kills bear that wouldn’t leave porch

Conservation officer says 11-year-old won’t get in trouble for shooting

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updated 8:54 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2009

DRIGGS, Idaho - An 11-year-old Idaho boy fatally shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave.

The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. He says he couldn't shoo the animal away, so he went and got a gun and shot it.

Doug Petersen, a conservation officer with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, says the boy and his family probably won't be in any trouble, because the agency had received multiple complaints about a black bear in the area. The bear had been hanging around a transfer station and getting into garbage cans and bird feeders.

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Petersen says Fish and Game doesn't usually issue citations in situations where the bear had been a problem around humans.

The agency has issued the family a permit to keep the bear's carcass.