A Granby homeowner shot and killed a black bear on Friday that he says broke into an enclosure and killed several of his chickens. He has been charged with illegal taking of black bear and is due in Superior Court on October 9.
It’s one of the first times anyone has been charged since Connecticut’s 2023 bear law took effect, and it lands at a moment when bears are breaking into homes more than ever. Many people assumed the 2023 law settled when you can shoot a bear. It didn’t. Here’s what’s driving the conflict, what the law actually says, and what this case means for every Connecticut homeowner with a backyard coop.
What happened in Granby
According to DEEP, 39-year-old Michael Gero shot the bear after it broke into an enclosure and killed some of his chickens. He told investigators he saw the bear eating a chicken in his yard before he fired, and that he believed the same bear had killed his goats last month. He called DEEP himself to report it.
He did not hide anything. He reported the kill, explained why, and still got charged. That’s the part that should get your attention.
The numbers are only going one direction
The Granby shooting didn’t happen in a vacuum. DEEP’s March 2025 “State of the Bears” briefing shows a bear population that is growing, spreading, and running into people more every year.
Sightings are statewide. Bears returned to Connecticut in the 1980s and have now been spotted in every town in the state in recent years. In 2024 alone, residents reported bears in 159 of Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities. Parts of Litchfield and Hartford counties logged hundreds of sightings per town. Granby and its neighbors sit in the darkest part of the map.
The breeding population is expanding. Sightings can mislead, because young males wander long distances. The better measure is where mothers with cubs show up, since females stay close to where they were born. In 2015, DEEP got roughly 400 reports of sows with cubs from about 45 towns. By 2024, it was roughly 1,800 reports from about 90 towns. Over the last three years, sows with cubs turned up in 117 different municipalities. Bears aren’t just passing through anymore. They’re raising families here.
And they’re good at it. Connecticut sows average 2.5 cubs, and 82 percent of those cubs survive their first year. DEEP says the population has high growth potential because of plentiful habitat and the amount of human food available across their range. The current estimate is 1,000 to 1,200 bears, with no hunting season and about 65 bears a year killed by cars as the main check on numbers.
Conflicts have climbed faster than sightings. In 2015, DEEP received around 500 conflict reports from about 80 towns. In 2024 it was well over 3,000, from roughly 140 towns. More than 16,000 conflicts were reported between 2020 and 2024. The serious ones are rising too: livestock attacks, beehive and crop damage, damaged cars and buildings, and run-ins with pets and people. Connecticut recorded two bear attacks on humans in 2024.
What’s drawing them in: trash first, birdfeeders second. DEEP’s breakdown of those 16,000-plus conflicts shows trash as the single biggest driver by a wide margin, with birdfeeders a clear second. Together they account for well over half of all reported conflicts, far ahead of structural damage, livestock, beehives, pets, and home entries.
Birdfeeder problems follow the calendar. Reports climb in March as bears come out of their dens hungry, and peak in May and June. That’s why DEEP and Audubon Connecticut urge people to take feeders down every spring, hummingbird feeders included.
Some towns have gone further than the state. Granby is one of ten Connecticut towns with its own ordinance against feeding bears, adopted in 2021. Colebrook, Hartland, Barkhamsted, Simsbury, East Granby, Manchester, Farmington, Salisbury, and North Canaan have similar rules, and some ban birdfeeders during warm months. Since the 2023 law, intentionally feeding bears is illegal statewide, but local ordinances can reach further, for example by requiring bear-resistant trash cans.
A bear that learns your trash can is a buffet doesn’t stop at the trash can. That’s how a garbage problem becomes a chicken coop problem, and eventually a criminal charge.
Home entries hit a record high. Bears got into Connecticut homes at least 67 times in 2024, in 16 different towns. That’s the highest number DEEP has on record, topping the previous peak of about 64 in 2022. In 2015 there were fewer than 10. Dozens more attempted break-ins were reported on top of that, many by bears pushing through screen doors and windows.
Adjusted for population, 2024 was a record too. Connecticut saw more than 5 home entries per 100 bears, the highest rate on DEEP’s chart going back to 2012 and roughly eight times the rate in New York or New Jersey. Over the last six years, Connecticut has averaged 3.7 home entries per 100 bears a year. Massachusetts and New York each average less than one.
Connecticut is an outlier. Connecticut logged 3,093 bear conflicts in 2023, nearly five times as many as Massachusetts, which reported 645, even though Massachusetts has roughly four times as many bears. Per bear, Connecticut’s conflict rate is about 20 times higher. Every neighboring state with bears has a hunting season. Connecticut doesn’t.
That’s the backdrop for Granby. More bears, living closer to people, finding more food in more backyards. The legislature responded in 2023 with a self-defense provision and a permit program. What it didn’t do is give homeowners a free hand to shoot a bear over property.
What the 2023 law actually allows
In 2023 the legislature passed Public Act 23-77, which added subsection (c) to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 26-80a. It lets you use deadly force to kill a bear if you reasonably believe the bear is doing one of three things:
- Inflicting or about to inflict great bodily harm on a human
- Injuring or killing your pet, as long as the pet is otherwise controlled as the law requires
- Entering a building occupied by people
The law borrows the “reasonable belief” language from human self-defense law. It does not give you a general right to protect property. Livestock is not on that list.
Why chickens don’t fit
Chickens and goats are livestock. For livestock, the same 2023 law created a separate path: a special permit from DEEP. Biologists visit the farm, document the damage, and recommend non-lethal fixes like electric fencing. Those fixes have to be tried first. A permit is issued only after they fail.
That program launched in summer 2024, and DEEP reports 15 bears were removed under it that year. DEEP also reports that more than 85 percent of livestock conflicts in recent years involve backyard chickens. So the legislature did provide a lawful way to deal with a bear that keeps hitting your animals. It just requires paperwork and patience, not a rifle on a Friday afternoon.
If the bear had been coming at Gero, or at his kids, or through the back door of his house, this would likely be a different conversation. On the facts reported so far, the bear was eating a chicken.
What he’s facing
Illegal taking of a bear under § 26-80a carries, for a first offense, a fine of up to $500, up to 30 days in jail, or both. The statute also allows suspension of a hunting license. Those penalties are modest, but it’s still a criminal charge, and a conviction follows you.
Possible defenses
I don’t represent Mr. Gero and don’t know the full facts, but a few questions jump out:
- Were the chickens pets? The statute protects a “pet” but doesn’t define the term. Plenty of people treat backyard hens as family pets, not farm stock. If they were kept for companionship, that argument deserves a look.
- Was anyone in danger? If a person was near the enclosure, or the bear turned toward the house, the great bodily harm provision could come into play. The standard is reasonable belief, not certainty.
- Where was the enclosure? Probably not part of the house, but the “building occupied by persons” language is worth checking against the property layout.
Is the 2023 law working?
Partly. The self-defense provision gives people clear protection when a bear threatens a person, a pet, or an occupied home. The feeding ban and the farm permit program give DEEP real tools. But the numbers kept climbing after the law took effect, and home entries set a new record in 2024. The law tells you when you can shoot a bear. It doesn’t do much to keep bears out of your yard in the first place. That part is still on homeowners.
How DEEP says to live with bears
Black bears are generally shy and avoid people. Most problems start with food. DEEP’s recommendations:
- Be bear aware. Bears can show up anywhere in the state.
- Manage trash and other attractants. Bear-resistant trash cans work, and more residents use them every year. Ask your hauler if they’re available.
- Take down all bird food, including hummingbird feeders.
- Use electric fencing to protect livestock, beehives, fruit trees, and backyard coops.
- Leave bears alone. Give them an escape route, keep dogs leashed, and don’t move closer for a photo.
- Scare off bears that hang around your home looking for food, before bad habits set in.
What to do if a bear is killing your animals
- Call DEEP before you act, if you have time. Document everything: photos, dates, dead animals, damaged fencing.
- Put up electric fencing. DEEP publishes free spec cards, and a failed fence is what you’ll need to show before getting a permit.
- Apply for the agricultural damage permit if the problem keeps happening.
- Only use deadly force if a person, a pet, or an occupied building is at real risk.
- If you’ve already shot a bear, talk to a lawyer before you give a detailed statement.
The 2023 law gave Connecticut residents real protection. It also drew a line, and the Granby case shows where it sits. Your family and your pets are on one side. Your chickens, for now, are on the other.
Leave a Reply