DETROIT (AP) – Game officials plan to trap and relocate a female bear and her two cubs believed to be the likely killers of at least two cows at a dairy farm in this central Maine town.

At least two other cows were injured at Donn Temple’s farm off Route 220 near the Troy town line and a fifth cow is missing and presumed dead, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The two cows found dead Saturday had deep claw and bite marks on them, and officials said the attack was the latest in a series of incidents involving bears.

“It is unusual (for bears to attack cows), but this whole year has been unusual. We’ve had bears take goats, pigs. Of course, a cow is a lot bigger animal,” Latti said Tuesday.

Temple said the dead cows were heifers weighing between 500 and 600 pounds each.

“There were chunks right out of them,” he said.

Temple, whose pasture abuts a wooded area, said he spotted the adult bear about two weeks ago near the woods. Also last week, a bear destroyed beehives owned by Pike Parent located adjacent to the pasture.

Several close encounters with bears were reported this spring as hungry bears emerged from their dens, but the latest attack came far later than wardens would expect bears still to be hungry from hibernation.

Latti said that each year for more than 20 years, the state has received at least 200 calls from farmers and homeowners worried about “nuisance” bears.

Earlier this month, a Standish teenager taking snapshots of a black bear raiding a bird feeder in his back yard was slashed by the bear, making him the first victim of a bear attack in at least five years in Maine.

In Atkinson, a bear devoured two pigs on a farm, prompting residents of the central Maine community to tell children to stay indoors. Bears also killed some sheep on a farm in the southwestern Maine town of Parsonsfield.

In Bridgton, administrators kept schoolchildren inside at recess because of marauding bears. And in mid-May, police in South Portland killed a 278-pound bear found roaming through backyards in a densely populated section of the city.

The reports have circulated throughout the state as a November referendum on whether to ban baiting, trapping and use of hounds to hunt bears draws closer. Referendum opponents cite attacks and bear sightings as evidence that the animals need to be managed by hunting methods currently allowed by law.

On Wednesday, groups behind the referendum said state employees’ activities to defeat the proposal are illegal and unethical.

Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting, Hunters for Fair Bear Hunting, the Humane Society of the United States and Fund for Animals said they have written to Gov. John Baldacci and the state game department to complain about those activities. Baldacci opposes the referendum proposal.

Their letter says Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department employees prepare statements, participate in debates and help develop strategies on state time to defeat the referendum. The letter calls those activities unethical, a threat to the integrity of the electoral process and illegal.

Latti rejected the charges, citing Maine law that allows state employees to speak out on public issues like the bear referendum.

Latti also said the department checked with the governor’s lawyers before the campaign to make sure they could participate in public discussions on the issue. He said no taxpayer money is involved because the department raises its own revenues through fees.

AP-ES-06-30-04 1435EDT