Two cubs of a mother bear who swiped at a woman’s leg in Monrovia and was subsequently euthanized by state wildlife officials were in the process Wednesday of being relocated so they can eventually be returned to the wild.
According to Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik, he was informed Tuesday by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that the mother bear had been euthanized — despite the city’s desire for the animal to be relocated into the Angeles National Forest.
CDFW officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Feik, the bear’s two cubs “are healthy and will be relocated to a facility where they can be repopulated back into wildland areas.”
“I am sorry to share the unfortunate news,” Feik said in a statement. “The Monrovia City Council requested and lobbied for the bear and her cubs to be relocated into the Angeles National Forest but the decision was never the city’s to make. By the time we were able to speak with state officials involved in the decision-making, the decision to euthanize was already made.”
The bear was captured by wildlife officials on Monday. Authorities said the animal swiped a Monrovia woman on Saturday while she was walking her dog. A neighbor helped to scare the bear away, and the cubs were not present during the attack. The woman was not seriously injured.
According to Feik, CDFW officials told him DNA testing performed on the bear confirmed that the animal was involved in a previous incident in June 2025 in which a Monrovia man sitting on his enclosed porch when he was approached by a bear that swiped at him. The resident was injured but recovered, and the bear at that time could not be located.
“The bear DNA from Saturday’s incident matches the bear DNA from the June 2025 incident,” Feik said. “Local CDFW officials, as well as those working at state offices in Sacramento, determined the two incidents which caused human injury were sufficient justification to euthanize the bear, according to state policy.”
More than 3,000 people had signed a petition to save the bear, which some said was simply exhibiting instinctively protective maternal behavior.