Posted on 12/22/2017 6:00:42 AM PST by marktwain
Over 20 years ago in 1996, I was driving to Phoenix, Arizona to catch a flight to Wisconsin.
I had the radio on. The news was reporting a horrific bear attack on Mount Lemon, near Tucson, Arizona. A teenage girl had been badly mauled by a bear, in her tent, as part of a 4-H outing.
A camp counselor had accessed a handgun and shot the bear, driving it off.
As the hours rolled along, the AP stories started getting vaguer and the story less heroic. The Internet wasn't well developed in 1996. It took me several years to track down the “camp counselor”.
Then, the notes and email were lost. Finally, in 2017, I made contact again.
The “camp counselor” who shot the 356 lb black bear off of Anna Knochel was Brett Kramer. He was the supervising adult in charge, an employee of the University of Arizona, in his official capacity as an Extension Agent. The details used to fill in and correct newspaper accounts of the time come from my interviews with Brett.
In 1996, it was the twilight before dawn when the big black bear entered the girl's tent at 5:15 in the morning of 25 July. He pinned 16-year-old Anna Knochel down and started biting and tearing at her. Anna did not make a lot of noise.
She tried to protect her vitals and managed to get on her stomach. The bear bit at the back of her head, her shoulder, and back. It tore her leg open from the buttocks to the knee. There were extensive claw wounds from her scalp all down her back.
It took minutes for people in the camp to be alerted that a bear was attacking Anna in her tent.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
It was an early experience of how AP edited reality to comply with their political views.
Fake news.
Wow. They never used to have bear maulings on the program when I went on 4-H outings...
;-)
” They never used to have bear maulings on the program when I went on 4-H outings... “
Bear maulings were added to the program in the 90’s.
Photography was becoming less popular; so they needed something to replace it and attract new kids to the program.
Yes, and almost any handgun will serve to stop a predatory black bear attack.
They often approach the “prey” carefully and cautiously, giving plenty of opportunity to use a handgun to stop them.
Any bear that openly approaches humans closer then 30 feet is dangerous and should not be tolerated.
They have become acclimated to humans and pose a real danger.
“The bear that attacked Anna was a known problem bear. Arizona Game and Fish, the University of Arizona, The U.S. Forest Service and the Boy Scouts were sued by the Knochels for negligence. A settlement with Arizona Game and Fish was reached for a reported 2.5 million dollars. The lawsuit had repercussions far beyond Arizona. I have not found results for the other defendants.”
Government failure. Imagine that.
Given all the advancements in digital photography, and the surge in popularity of cell phone cameras, perhaps they should rethink their position.
:)
“rethink their position.”
On having bear maulings as part of the program?!
Or more photography?!
Mount Lemmon.
A little from column A, a little from column B...
I camped and hiked in that exact area,
Walked into a nice clearing which
had felled trees that appeared
To Be “Cat Scratch Posts.”
I skeedaddled!
We have black bears here in north Jersey and NY; when we’d camp in either the winter or early spring we had to be most careful. Ageing bears that hadn’t eaten enough to hibernate through the winter would emerge early, starving to death; they’d eat anything.
Hah!
I’m partial to photography and 4H as my grandmother led that part of the program in the 70’s and 80’s where I’m from.
Yes, due to an incorrect mental model of reality.
The U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior as whole and their related state agencies have a erroneous mental model of nature. They believe that nature in its most natural state is superior to nature controlled by man. And that man must learn to “Be at One” with nature.
If they could learn from history, which the Left chooses to rewrite to suit their needs, they would learn that when man is at one with nature, man’s life is short and brutal.
If one puts man at the top of the natural pyramid and in control of the lessor creatures. Both man and beast can live better lives.
But this is anathema to the Gia worshipers in the government agencies that control parks and federal land.
Ok hikers, here is your whistle and pepper spray for bears.
Sir, how do we know that there are bears in the area?
Well, look for their scat (poop).
How do we know it is bear poop and not some other animal?
That’s easy, the bear poop has whistles in it and smells of hot peppers.
The US Forest Service and the BLM are controlled in large part by the EnvironMental and Animal Rights Activists both within their agencies and more importantly by those outside of their agencies.
Here in AZ my family has come under attack by the Heber Wildhorse activists. They have decided that the feral horses that are actually trespass animals from our neighboring Indian Reservation are “Wild Horses”. My family has owned/managed a local ranch that utilizes National Forest land for over 80 years. My parents sold the ranch in 1982 but my brother has managed it the whole time. The activists have made him their enemy #1.
Anytime the Forest Service tries to manage these horses, the activists sue to stop the management. This is the same thing the Environmentalists have done to stop timber production and it is what is causing these massive Forest Fires.
I went camping with a Boy Scout troop two weekends ago. When we arrived at the campsite, we soon noticed a set of very large, very fresh bear tracks walking through the snow in our camp. We were very alert the rest of the weekend.
There is no need for bears up there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.