Posted on 06/18/2007 8:29:23 AM PDT by george76
An 11-year-old boy is killed by a black bear overnight at a popular campsite in American Fork Canyon. This morning authorities are searching for the bear.
The boy was asleep inside a tent he was sharing with his family at the Timpooneke Camp area, about 10 miles up the canyon. The family was camping about two miles up a dirt road from that campground.
The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent with several sections, and the 11-year-old was in a section of the tent by himself.
Around 11 p.m. family members heard a scream and a loud commotion. They found the tent ripped open, and the boy and his sleeping bag gone.
Harris said the body was found about 400 yards from the tent in the direction of another campsite, where a bear sighting had been reported earlier in the weekend.
Crews are using dogs to search for the bear this morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksl.com ...
I look at it as if you are a cheeseburger on a plate-—that all of a sudden, out of the blue—you are sitting in Rosie Odonnel’s (the bear) kitchen. Rosie walks in and natural instinct takes over. She can’t help herself. You’re history.
From my viewpoint, I will leave along any critter that leaves me alone, and I will terminate any threat to me and mine, and I don't care if anybody has a problem with that. And that principle applies whether I'm walking thru bear country, or the "inner city"
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree
For .40 cal in bear country, I would alternate hollowpoint with FMJ (for penetration) and plan on emptying the magazine
animals are animals.....period....
so if that bear wanted to attack a human, he was going to no matter about the food supply, the toothpaste in the knap sack, mom having her monthly, etc.....
sometimes all the excuses in the world don't apply when it comes to wild animals.
and to add .....no matter what animals do, their destructive ways PALE in comparison to what humans do.....
so in reality....this 11 yro boy in bear country in a tent was probably far safer overall than almost anywhere else in the world......
“Not muzzle loaders, although I have built a few of them too. I put together custom bolt action hunting rifles and long range competition rifles.”
You must be quite a craftsman. I have built muzzle-loaders but never tried making a modern gun.
“the bear is attacking you will probably only get one quick shot and you had better make it count.”
Where is the best shot for an attacking bear? What kind of dogs do you use? I heard Plots are best on bears.
Too many people don;t really understand how unpredicatble an animal can be. I think the more intelligent an animal the more difficult it is to predict their behavior. A rattlesanke hasn’t got mush upstairs and they generally act like rattlesnakes always do.
Bears, wolves, people, are pretty complicated critters mentally and that makes them more unpredictable.
I really like Muzzle-loaders, but I think I have developed a bad case of Garanditis. But I have to get an original unsporterized Springfield 1903 model before I buy any more Garands.
Illini,
I would shoot the heaviest soft point bullet I cound find for it. Shot a mag or two amd make sure the rounds function flawlessly.
Fawn,
I don’t know where you live but most of my life has been spent in bear and cat country. I now have a home down in the northern Sacramento valley now, I finally went and got a little civilized. My dogs killed a mountain lion kitten about three hundred yards behind my house last year. I live out in a bunch of olive orchards but this is a settled county with electricity, running water, and inside plumbing. Mommy cat left her other kitten for parts unknown. The Department of fish and game took the surviving kitten t be raised in a sanctuary. If you re in the mountains in the western US there are bear and lions around. That is just a fact of life. Where I pack, work, camp and and hunt is inside of designated wilderness areas. All Mechanized vehicles, cars, or anything with a motor, wheels or a gearing system are prohibited in these areas. My world is high and wild and I love it. I have adult daughters who are with me every chance they get and an 11 year old son who tags along with me all the time. He is already a crack shot with his bow and firearms.
I’m there with the lions and bear because I want to be. I am a bunch safer with the animals I know and understand than the punks with guns in their hands fighting over red or blue in some filthy city. I raise registered Belgian Sheepdogs. I train them to keep track of and protect my pack strings while in the mountains and train them to work, herd, sheep and cattle in the wintertime. They are working stock dogs that are about the size of a medium German Shepherd. Here is a link to some information on my dogs. http://www.bsca.info/
We don’t have many bears at all here... Less than 5 sightings a year... mostly cougars and such are the camping threat. But when I am out, and we live in the woodlands, I always have my little .380 Auto. I have 8 rounds of Cor-Bon 90gr JHP +P and can put a tight inner circle grouping with all 8 in 6 seconds... and at the kind of range where I would have to use that... I’d be removing 40% of the creature’s brain matter!
= )
The dad heard him yell “somebody’s dragging me”!
What kind of pepper spray do you recommend? Where can you get it?
lol...true!
This story is so sad, tragic and being lied about by the animal rights crowd.
A 6-year-old girl was killed last year in Tennessee because a black bear attacked her 3-year-old brother. While her mother was fighting off the bear, the girl took off. Obviously looking for an easier prey, the bear took off after her. He killed her, then started to eat her.
I would be shocked and amazed to find the bear hadn’t started eating the boy, if he had had enough time before being run off the kill.
After a hunter, in Alabama, was dragged out of a tree by a black bear year-before-last, (I might have the hunter and the girl’s years mixed up) the experts were pressed into telling the truth about black bears; that if they come after you, fight for your life because you are dinner!
The animal rights’ folks would like you to think the black bear is a large raccoon, harmless unless cornered. Because of this, many folks don’t take the necessary precautions when in black bear territory.
Black bear don’t attack because of fear, or because you are near their food or young like grizzlies. They attack because you are their dinner.
I have stories of a black bear stalking and killing three teenage boys. Another of a black bear pulling a woman out of her tent in the 15-minutes the man she was hiking with was gone; another of black bear attacking a 5-year-old and trying to pull her out of her stroller while her mom was taking a walk with her near their home. Another black bear tried to take a 3-year-old and its stroller off the porch where mom had left the child while she went back inside to get something.
Black bear mostly attack humans during the day, and mostly children. You won’t hear this in the news by the animal rights folks. I was very angered by the animal planet host on O’Riley last night and would love to take my information on the show and have a debate with that man!
My mom tells the story of a boy fishing with his dog in Pa. where I grew up. The boy heard rustling behind him, and yelled at the dog several times to behave. When the rustling didn’t stop, he swung his hand around since the rustling had gotten closer, to settle the dog down. The nose he hit wasn’t that of his dog, but a black bear!
The thing that runs my blood cold, is that the bear was probably stalking the boy and no one really realized it! If he hadn’t tried to settle the dog down, the story might have turned out differently.
I hope this information someday saves a child’s life, and protects a family from such tragedy.
We will be praying for the family during this time of grief and horror. No family should have to suffer as this one did!
Yes you are right about how unpredictable black bears can be w/their meals.
I live in utah not far from the aforementioned attack and spoke w/my brother who knows one of the authorities involved w/the bear attack on the 11yr-old boy.
I’d like to put this as delicately as I can... but yes, unfortunately a large portion of him was consumed by the bear after he was drug out of the tent. I have more detailed info but will withhold mentioning the gruesomeness.
The black-bear knew it had food.
If everybody was sleeping, I would imagine a rip in the tent would only be a fraction of a second and might even sound like a sleeping bag zipper... again.. no alarm to be taken especially if everyone was sleeping soundly. I’m sure his scream woke them up.... even if the step-dad had a pistol, a sure target couldn’t be aquired in pitch dark. At that moment they probably went in to the boys “tent room” to see the commotion and to discover he was gone. They never even suspected a bear at that time. I believe cuddling w/the gun would be a good idea but there was probably not any presentable target. ... thus a dog might have been better in that exact situation.
The news media hasn’t given enough info for us to know how & why it happened. Since they weren’t warned of any previous bear activity, I don’t think there was much his family could have done to prevent it. It’s not like it’s Alaska or Yellowstone around here, I didn’t know bears were even around this area of the state. Just a freak accident... but you can bet I’ll be packing my 10mm w/double-taps housing a mounted LED light on my wilderness trip w/my kids next month. The dog can come too. At least I have a warning of a possible threat now!
The last thing we need to do is quit camping because of a liberal black bear!
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