I think it's prudent to teach children, and some adults, to have a healthy respect and fear of wild animals...especially bears.
I recall a rig hand, at a nearbye rig, went for a walk along a seismic line and a bear chased him up a rather small poplar tree. He started yelling for the rest of the crew to help him. However, they got there too late, and the bear had eaten his foot off.
I had a geologist, working for me at one time, who on his way to Jasper with his wife and baby daughter, spotted a baby fawn along the highway. They stopped and held their baby up to the fawn, and the fawn got scared and dug it hooves into the babies forehead. They frantically drove to a hospital in Jasper, where luckily the hooves hadn't penetrated the baby's skull, and was alright after a few stitches.
The idea that bears are harmless is ludicrous. Obviously, many people think this to be true the way they act around them sometimes... out taking photos at close range, etc.
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