Feeding bear is its death sentence

A young bear is dead because people in a northeastern Pennsylvania town had been feeding it by hand.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission says its officers were forced to euthanize the 75-pound animal on Saturday at Merli-Sarnoski Park in Carbondale.

Steve Schweitzer, director of the commission's northeast regional office, says the animal had lost its fear of humans and started approaching them because it had become accustomed to being fed by them.

Schweitzer says the commission had received pictures of the bear being hand-fed, including one of the animal standing on a picnic table where park visitors were sitting.

Schweitzer says the bear was put down after efforts to trap and remove it were unsuccessful.