By Chris Conley
May 3, 2021 6:39 PM
RHINELANDER, WI (WSAU-WXPR) Every year the Wisconsin DNR and USDA Wildlife Program gets about 800 calls for bear-related complaints.
Sometimes interactions between bears and humans are unavoidable. Brad Koele is a wildlife damage specialist with the Wisconsin DNR, who says stay calm if you find yourself face-to-face with a black bear.
“Don’t play dead or don’t try to approach the bear aggressively or anything like that because that could provoke an attack. Just try to make yourself appear big, talk loud, yell at the bear, slowly back away and get out of there. Bear are overall pretty docile animals and a lot of times once they see you or take notice of you they’ll turn and run the opposite way.”
It’s the time of year when black bears are starting to wake up and get moving. After a long winter deep sleep, bears often wake up with a focus on food.
Credit Oneida County Sheriff s Office
Oneida County Sheriffs are asking residents to use caution after a bear killed a dog in the Township of Pelican near the area of County P/Riopel Rd.
The bear is the height of a husky and 150 pounds.
Authorities say it is not afraid of humans.
In a Facebook post, the Sheriff s Office said These bears are waking up hungry and confused. Most only threaten garbage left out, and bird feeders, and will walk away with a simple yell or whistle. This bear killed a small dog near its owners and was trying to get to more dogs, and pawed at a residence door after following a woman on her deck.
An arrest has been made in the Nov. 15 homicide at the Red Carpet Inn on Lawrence street in southern Rome, according to state police.
Wilfredo Cotto Jr., 40, of Rome, was indicted Thursday by an Oneida County grand jury on a charge of felony second-degree murder in connection with the death of 28-year-old Benjamin Davis of Milton, police said.
Following the indictment, an arrest warrant was issued for Cotto and he was arrested, officials said. A virtual arraignment in Oneida County Court is planned for Monday, May 3.
An autopsy performed by the Onondaga County Medical examiner’s Office determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds, police previously said. The victim had been staying at the hotel and was shot in the early afternoon hours.
By WAOW Television Ben Zitouni
• 10 hours ago
Credit Pixabay.com
The numbers are in from area law enforcement agencies and the amount of medication they collected during drug take back day events.
The Stevens Point Police Department says they collected 130 pounds of drugs which equaled 9 boxes during their event Saturday.
The Stevens Point, Plover, Antigo, and Wausau Police Departments as well as the Portage County Sheriff s Department all have drop boxes in their lobbies that medication can be put in to be disposed of. We ve had a huge need for the drop off. We took over 300 pounds just our department alone of medications people have dropped off since our last take back in October, said lieutenant Dana Williams with the Stevens Point Police Department.