Wyoming department captures, euthanizes black bear cub

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department euthanized a black bear cub that officials say would not have survived in the wild.

The Laramie Boomerang reports the cub was captured on Thursday after Laramie police spotted it in town. State department officials say the cub, weighing about 25 pounds, was malnourished, and it did not have a mother.

Department Wildlife Management Coordinator Corey Class says the 10-month-old bear had no apparent body fat, and wild animals don’t always fare well in zoos. He says if the cub was released back into the wild, they would be “putting it out there to slowly starve to death.”

The bear was the second to be captured in Laramie this year. The first was released into the Platte River Wilderness.