Bears in the trash…again
(circa early 1990’s)
Sonlight had an old pickup bed trailer that I installed four foot plywood sides on. I made a tailgate with plywood as well. It was open on the top. That way, the crows could get in and eat the trash. That was our trash trailer. We had no dumpster service at the time.
In the evenings, as the bears would come in, they would climb up to the top of the trailer and jump inside. Soon, you would see large black bags of trash come flying out of the trailer and land on the ground. Then, the bears would get out of the trailer and carry the bags of trash off into the woods and shred them into a 1,000 pieces. The next day, Sonlight staff would pick up all the mess from the forest and put it back into the trash trailer. Then, the bears would come at night and throw the black bags of trash out of the trailer and ….you get the game here.
Winston decided to “discourage” the bears by using 12 volt electric wire around the trash trailer. The same as electric fence on a horse pasture. Sort of. I had bare wire hooked up to a car battery. Did not even slow the bears down. Different night, same game. Bears won.
OK. We are going big boy fun now. I removed the battery and wired it directly into the shop with house current. 110 volts. Take that Mr. Bear. That night, as we watched with excitement, the bears came in, touched the wire and began to dance. They were shaking their paws and hoping around, like a high school dance. We laughed and the bears ran away. Problem solved.
But, I felt bad about “electric tingling” a bear. They only want to eat. So, I build a roof on the trash trailer. No bear problem. But, even to this day, I miss the bears and their dancing.