Bear sighting in Fairfield prompts advisory from police
Leave the bear alone, a police spokesperson said.
(Photo via Facebook.com, Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
Another day, another bear sighting in Solano County.
On Tuesday, a bear sighting caused a stir in a Fairfield neighborhood, with photos and videos of the animal quickly posted to social media platforms.
A police spokesperson affirmed the bear was spotted in the area of Hillborn Road and Martin Road, and said the Solano County Animal Control and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had been made aware of the animal.
“Please be bear aware, but also let the bear be a bear,” the police spokesperson wrote in a message on the community alert platform Nixle. “It is a wild animal, and will likely wander back up into the hills.”
Police said the public should not attempt to “get photographs or selfies” with the bear, nor should anyone “antagonize the bear by approaching it [or chasing it.”
The spokesperson also asked the public not to call their police dispatch center to simply report a bear sighting.
“While we do want to be informed, we do not want to flood our dispatch center with calls of the bear’s location, as [the dispatchers] are very busy,” the spokesperson said.
Still, if any bear shows signs of aggression, then community members should give police a call.
Since April, community members from nearly every city in Solano County have reported a bear sighting, with the most-recent sightings occurring in Vallejo, Benicia and Dixon.
In early May, a bear was the talk of the town in Vacaville when it wandered up a tree near a middle school, prompting a shelter-in-place for students there. The bear eventually wandered into the backyard of a home, where it took an hours-long nap before heading back into the hills that separate Solano County from Napa County.
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