March 17, 1999 Missoulian article: Experts clear the air on bear repellents By SHERRY DEVLIN.
Pepper spray is "amazingly useful" in repelling bear attacks -and does not, as the maker of a new brand of deterrent contends, actually attract bears to campsites, a group of biologists, outfitters and educators said Tuesday.
At a news conference the group lambasted an e-mail sent to federal agencies by ChemArmor, the Missoula-based maker of Bear Pause a relative newcomer in the increasingly lucrative bear deterrent pepper spray market.
In the e-mail, Bear Pause chemist Cody Dwire contends that other, competing pepper sprays attract bears because they are made from food-grade oleoresin capsicum (the active ingredient in hot peppers).
Dwire, in fact, claims that a Japanese photographer was killed on Alaska's Kamchakta Peninsula in 1997 by a grizzly bear drawn to his campsite by the scent of deterrent sprayed in the area several nights earlier. The man was sleeping on the ground outside an overcrowded cabin.
"These food-based sprays are more stinky than bacon grease," he said. "At a minimum, their labels should state that the residues attract bears."
Dwire said his pepper spray uses only the capsicum and does not contain any of the vegetable oils, vitamins or minerals in other products. It does not attract bears, he said, although he has limited field test data.
The counterpoint came forcefully so - from government and independent biologists at Tuesday afternoon's news conference.
"No deterrent is 100 percent effective," said Jay Gore, the national grizzly bear habitat coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service. "But compared to all other deterrents, including firearms, bear pepper spray has shown the most success in fending off threatening and attacking bears."
Gore read from a position paper adopted last year by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee - which "strongly recommends the use of pepper spray specifically produced as bear deterrent."
Pepper sprays are deterrents, though, the biologists warned. They are not repellents.
"Don't spray it like an insect repellent," Gore said. "Don't spray your kids with it, or your tent with it. It is a deterrent, for use only in an attack."
Use pepper spray like insect repellent and you may well attract a bear, said Jonkel. "Their noses are super sensitive. Odors will attract them. They are intensely interested in all sorts of odors. They are going to check it out.
But then "anything synthetic has the potential to attract grizzlies," said Chuck Bartlebaugh, director of the Center for Wildlife information in Missoula. "Tents, yellow rain slickers, a camera lens."
"If you're in that bear's back yard, then you are an attractant," said outfitter Smoke Elser, in his 42nd year working in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. "Pepper spray is just your sidekick. It's your job to learn how to live with the bears."
Bartlebaugh accused Dwire of "fear marketing" and "spin doctoring." He said the Japanese photographer who died in Alaska was sleeping outside in an area with 70 grizzly bears habituated to humans and food - by photographers hoping for better shots.
"Consumers are confused," Bartlebaugh said. "These claims are also making bears look more dangerous than they actually are."
Dwire admitted "to a certain extent" that he is trying to market a competing brand of pepper spray. But he insisted that he is motivated by fear that "another tragedy will happen. We have turned into the bad guy because we have forced the issue. But if we don't, nobody is going to take the food out of their pepper spray. And you have millions of people running into the national parks, carrying their bear spray and not realizing how dangerous it can be even if used properly."
Dwire said he is taking his case to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which registers pepper spray. His Bear Pause is not yet registered, and has only been tested for one summer - by Dwire - in Alaska.
"We are a new company," he said. "We've had to go against so much of this marketing myth about burning the nose or eyes of the bear. Pain doesn't work to stop a charging grizzly. You've basically got to stop the breathing and generate a flight response. That's what our product does."
Not so, came the reply from Doug Dunbar, who used a canister of pepper spray to push a grizzly bear off his chest while working one summer in Yellowstone National Park. "I think I was the first person who used bear pepper spray in the field," he said. "The bear bit me on the belly and I sprayed him right in the face. It worked." The grizzly, Dunbar said, was a 650-pound male.
No one ever suggested spraying bear deterrent on yourself or your camping gear, said Anne Carter, the office manager at CounterAssault. "For a pepper spray to work, to deter aggressive attacks, it has to be airborne," she said. "It has to be in the air, so the bear gets it in the face."
The CounterAssault can, in fact, tells users: "This product may be used only to deter bears which are attacking or appear likely to attack humans. Do not spray this product on objects, tents or humans. Such use has no deterrent effect on bears."
Bartlebaugh listed-these guidelines for buyers of bear 'deterrent pepper spray:
"When used correctly, these pepper sprays have been amazingly useful," Bartlebaugh said. "But it's important to remember that you'll probably never have to use your bear spray. Deer injure and kill more people every year than bears.