Alaska mayor vetoes law aimed at protecting moose

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The mayor of Anchorage has vetoed an ordinance passed by the municipal assembly intended to protect moose from impaling themselves on fences decorated with metal spikes.

The ordinance would have banned new spiked fences and required homeowners to modify existing fences less than 7 feet tall within five years.

The number of moose wounded or killed by such fencing is "very, very low," Mayor Dan Sullivan said Wednesday in his veto statement, adding that the cost of redoing fences outweighs the benefit of saving a few of the animals.

Moose are a common sight for the nearly 300,000 residents of Alaska's largest city. Moose feed on natural and ornamental foliage.

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Alaska bear mauling victim pleads for help, ambulance in recorded 911 calls

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A 30-year-old Alaska man mauled by a bear pleads for help in a recorded 911 call, telling the dispatcher he’s up a tree and can hear the animal huffing below him.

In the recording released by Alaska State Troopers, Ben Radakovich tells the dispatcher to send an ambulance, saying he is “bleeding bad.” At one point the two are disconnected and Radakovich calls back.

Radakovich climbed 30 feet up the tree after he was mauled Sunday morning by a female brown bear with a cub on the Penguin Creek Trail south of Anchorage.

“The damn thing was batting at me,” Radakovich tells the dispatcher.

It took rescuers almost two hours to reach him. Troopers say a helicopter was unable to land nearby, so rescuers used an all-terrain vehicle to carry Radakovich on a wheeled stretcher to transport him to the chopper one and a half miles away.

He was flown to an Anchorage hospital, and was released Monday morning, according to Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.

Radakovich, who lives in the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River north of town, did not respond to phone messages left at a number listed under his name. He told ABC’s Good Morning America: “I’m just grateful that I got through it and that I’m here to enjoy another day basically.”

Several bear and moose attacks in recent weeks have raised concerns in the area; no one has died, but some of the animals have been killed.

Many calls are from people reporting bears raiding outdoor trash cans or crossing streets. Others are from people charged by moose with young offspring born in the spring calving season.

Continued:http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Alaska+bear+mauling+victim+pleads+help+ambulance+recorded+calls/6777941/story.html

Police called to expel bear from vandalizing high school

POLICE were called to deal with unruly behavior at an Anchorage high school yesterday (13th June), but it wasn't a troublesome student - instead they had to chase a bear out of the classroom building.

Bartlett High School - home of the Golden Bears sporting teams - was evacuated yesterday afternoon while police went inside to scare the small brown bear out, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Police banged on some doors and the bear ran outside and off into a nearby wooded area, officer Chris Mueller said.

"She was shopping. Any trash can that had any food in it was knocked over," Mueller said. "She peed in the hall at one point. Another teenage ne'er-do-well, just a different species."

The bear had entered through a door left open for builders doing construction work on the east Anchorage school, Mueller said.

Eugene Dixon, who was cutting weeds on the school grounds, told the Daily News that the bear "stood about waist high."

Authorities have already shot and killed three brown bears this summer in and around Anchorage.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/the-other-side/police-called-to-expel-bear-from-vandalizing-high-school/story-e6frfhk6-1226395647226