Despite warning, woman fed bears and was killed

DENVER – Donna Munson considered the black bears that swarmed across her land in southwestern Colorado to be her pets.

She fed them dog food and scraps – poking the food through a metal fence she had built around her porch – attracting so many bruins that neighbors sometimes counted as many as 14 on her property at a time.

On Friday, one of them killed Munson, 74, slashing her head through the fence and dragging her body underneath it to consume her.

“She was dead-set on continuing to feed the bears, and unfortunately, she paid the ultimate price,” said Ouray County Sheriff’s Investigator Joel Burk, who shot a bear that tried to approach Munson’s remains as he interviewed witnesses at the scene.

Her death represents one of the rare instances in which bears have killed humans in this state; officials have recorded two other fatal attacks since they began tracking human-bear encounters in the 1960s.

For the past decade, Munson had developed a reputation for doting on wildlife at her log cabin about 190 miles southwest of Denver. She fed bears, skunks, elk and stray cats, said Tammy York, 36, who boarded with Munson seven years ago.

She described Munson as a sweet woman whose husband had died years earlier and who seemed to have little contact with other people.

“I think she really loved them and loved to watch them,” she said.

When bears began breaking into nearby homes – apparently seeking the dog food they were accustomed to getting at Munson’s house – neighbors complained. Wildlife officers tried to persuade her to stop, said Tyler Baskfield, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

It didn’t work, and last year the division sent her a letter, warning they would pursue legal action if she didn’t change her ways. Munson did not cooperate, and officers began building a case against her, Baskfield said.

“To friends and family she trusted, she would tell them, yes, she was feeding the bears, but they were harmless, they were her friends. She was helping them, and they would help her,” Burk said. “When people told her she was in danger, she would rebut that, saying, ‘These are my pets, my babies.’ ”