BURRILLVILLE – An independent candidate for Burrillville Town Council is blaming an opponent and his “minions” for drumming up fake outrage over an instance of him trying to scare a bear away from his backyard beehives.
Don Sullivan said “unhinged” individuals, spurred on by Republican Council President Don Fox, have doxxed him and his family over the situation, an effort he said is politically motivated.
On Thursday, Sullivan posted a video that had been making the rounds of him shooting the bear with the BB gun. The video is from a year ago, he said.
“So let’s address the elephant (bear) in the room today,” he said. “First off, no bears were hurt making this video.”
He explained that he was using a one-pump Red Ryder BB gun to dissuade “the 350-pound animal” from wrecking his DEM-registered beehive.
As a child, Sullivan said, he and friends would play war with the same kind of gun, the one rule being no shots above the waist.
“So really, what are we even talking about?” he said. “My wife took the video and someone befriended her on Facebook to gain access.”
A number of residents have posted the video and asked others to help make it go viral. They noted that black bears are protected, and said it was disgusting that Sullivan and his wife were laughing as he shot at an animal that was “just doing its natural thing.” They also stated how they reported him to the RIDEM.
At a local food truck event two weeks ago, said Sullivan, Fox told him “we have” the footage he was going to release it.
“We aren’t debating about issues,” he said. “This is simple intimidation tactics, and it now involves my family.”
He said he’s not OK with people bringing his family into it and doxxing them by promoting where he lives.
Fox said that Sullivan’s claim about him is not accurate, telling The Local Insider he told Sullivan during the food truck event that other people had the video and had shown it to him.
“As an outdoorsman who abides by our game and shooting laws, I find it reprehensible,” he said. “I told him he would eventually need to answer for it, as those who saw it were upset about it. I had known about the video for some time, but had done nothing with it. But I, of course, can’t control what other people do.”
Sullivan, Fox said, “screamed uncontrollably” at him at the food truck event. He added that Sullivan seems to have a short temper.
“I chose to walk away rather than watch the situation escalate even further,” he said.
Sullivan said a RIDEM representative came to visit after residents reported him, and he and his wife showed the officer the video, the BB gun, and discussed what happened.
“We were cleared,” he said. “The officer further commented that DEM uses bean bag rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun to dissuade bear activity.”
The officer told them about their procedure and suggested to not post this type of content in the future, added Sullivan.
The candidate said they were laughing in the video because the bear jumped the fence so quickly.
“My wife called him Pooh bear,” he said.
That wasn’t the first time the bear had visited, said Sullivan, and the anima had repeatedly come after their hives.
Sullivan said he had had called the Burrillville PD, town animal control, and made multiple calls to DEM to report the animal’s movement and inquire on best practice to protect the hive, adding that he’d discussed the BB gun as a deterrent.
His family is into conservation of all animals, he said, and that’s especially true of honey bees.
“The drastic reduction of the honey bee population is problematic to the world,” he said. “We donate to the cause monthly and try to promote their prominence in nature.”
Sullivan said they are not hunters.
“I don’t have it in me, and frankly it requires getting up way too early,” he said. “I fully support hunters who harvest their kill and help keep the herds and population numbers healthy.”
He called the outrage “distraction tactics” and part of the “dirty business” of town politics.
He the video, he said, in the interest of transparency and accountability.
“You be the judge,” he said.
The BB gun was never going to harm the bear, said Sullivan. Noise hadn’t worked to deter the animal that day, so they tried another alternative.
“DEM allows farmers to protect livestock. They use beanbag rounds discharged from a 12-gauge shotgun when they do something similar,” he said. “The bee hive was registered livestock. We are passionate about protecting the dwindling bee population.”
He added, “I love all animals in this town. I don’t hunt and (I am) gut-wrenched if I hit a squirrel.”
The November race for Town Council features seven candidates trying for four available seats on the seven-member board. All four incumbents are running, plus two Democrats and the independent Sullivan.
Sullivan is focusing his campaign on moving the town forward in a productive manner, prioritizing good community services and protecting the environment and water supply. He’s opposing any discussions on power plants/data centers, Flock cameras, and tax increases, among others.
Fox said Sullivan doesn’t want to talk about real issues affecting the town, choosing to focus on “non-existent” issues such as data centers, making the turf field into an issue, and not attending meetings until he was running for office. He said Sullivan claimed to have work commitments during a previously debate, but he is welcome to additional planned. debates.
Sullivan said his issue with the field, as he expressed to Fox, was on the way the town sued the resident who was fighting it and lost, putting Burrillville on the hook for big payments.
