VANCOUVER?Officials in Canada will spare the lives of some two dozen bears rounded up on the site of an illegal marijuana operation shut down last month, authorities told AFP.

Police encountered the bears in August at Christina Lake in a remote part of British Columbia.

Officials in Canada's westernmost province, who told AFP the bears were fed dog food to keep them nearby to deter drug thieves, ordered a reprieve sparing the lives of the animals following an online public campaign.

Late Tuesday, provincial Environment Minister Barry Penner told AFP the property owner, who he said was under investigation and could still face charges, had been ordered to continue feeding the bears until mid-November, by which time they are expected to start hibernating.

"Rather than cutting the bears off... they (will) be gradually weaned," said Penner.

He said when the bears awake in spring, they may learn to stay in the wild and avoid people.

"I hope it will have a happy ending but there's no guarantee," Penner said.

In the past three years some 1,264 black bears were destroyed because of bear-human conflicts in British Columbia, according to provincial statistics.

As many as 160,000 black bears live in British Columbia, fully one quarter of Canada's population.