As bear populations recover in parts of Europe and North America, human-bear conflict is increasing, creating welfare challenges for bears subjected to hazing, translocation, and lethal control.
Bears involved in human conflict face a range of welfare outcomes from hazing that causes short-term fear to translocation and ultimately lethal control when non-lethal methods fail. The welfare of individual bears must be balanced against human safety and the broader conservation value of recovered bear populations. Preventive approaches that eliminate access to attractants including unsecured food, livestock, and fruit trees are far more effective and welfare-friendly than reactive management of food-conditioned individuals. Bears that have become food-conditioned through human negligence face euthanasia that could have been prevented by responsible community food storage.