American black bears are increasingly encountered in suburban areas as human development expands into their range. Managing these encounters humanely is a key wildlife welfare issue.
Black bears attracted to human settlements by accessible food sources face a predictable and preventable welfare trajectory: initial food conditioning, escalating human encounters, conflict events, and ultimately lethal control. This outcome is the welfare consequence of inadequate human behaviour management rather than bear behaviour. Bears that are hazed, relocated, and have their food sources secured can successfully disengage from human settlements. Bears that are killed represent a welfare harm that was almost always preventable. Community education, mandatory bear-resistant trash infrastructure, and effective hazing programmes protect both bears and human safety simultaneously.