“Hank the Tank,” a 500-pound black bear who has been wreaking havoc in a neighborhood near Lake Tahoe in California, has been “targeted for death” by state wildlife authorities, said a bear education group that is seeking a home for him in a sanctuary.
For more than seven months, Hank has been breaking into homes around the Tahoe Keys neighborhood of South Lake Tahoe, the department said. He has “forcefully entered” at least 28 homes in the area, the department said last week, and has caused 33 cases of “extensive property damage.”
Hank is “extremely food-habituated,” the department said, meaning he is no longer afraid of people — thinking of them not as threats but rather “associating people with access to food.” The average weight of an adult male black bear is about 250 pounds, according to New Mexico’s wildlife department — about half Hank’s weight.
In one of Hank’s latest escapades, he “somehow squeezed inside” a home through a small window, South Lake Tahoe police said Friday.
Two officers responded to a call about “our big bear friend,” banging on the home’s exterior until Hank “popped out a back door.”
The police noted that Hank was not breaking into garages where trash was being kept — an expected hazard for many people living in mountain or forest communities — but busting into a “secured home.”
Hank’s capers have earned him the status of “conflict bear,” according to the wildlife department’s bear policy.
Ann Bryant, director of the Bear League, a local group that works to “educate people about the true nature” of bears and avert conflicts with humans, said in a Facebook post that Hank is “being targeted for death” by the wildlife department. She added that three sanctuaries have said they’re willing to work with the department to “get Hank off the streets and into a good home.”
The wildlife department said “euthanizing an animal is always our last option.” It said it was “currently evaluating” sending Hank to a sanctuary but added that such an option poses risks for bears, noting that captivity can have “significant negative consequences on their mental health.”
Bryant said the group agreed with the department that moving Hank somewhere else in the wild was “not an option,” considering his behavior.
In light of Hank’s adventures, police said, the Tahoe Keys homeowners association had moved to allow the installation of bear-resistant containers that are often used in campgrounds to store food.
Bryant said the group was “vehemently opposed” to any plan that involved killing Hank because “after all, he is only answering the ring of the dinner bell, as all bears do.” She said she would not be addressing the media further, hoping to give the wildlife department time to develop a plan that “doesn’t involve killing this bear.”
A representative for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding its plans for Hank.

