Woman, 65, is attacked by 300-pound bear, fights back and survives

LA Times ^ | 9-25-14 | Veronica Rocha

[afraidfortherepublic]

One minute, Emily Miles was walking her dogs in a Santa Barbara County avocado grove, the next, a hulking 300-pound black bear was sinking its teeth into her left thigh after tackling her to the ground..

"Looking at him, I knew he could kill me in an instant," Miles, 65, said in an interview aired by KTLA.

[gov_bean_ counter]

oops. ot = not

[DannyTN]

What is the deal with black bears this year?

[miss marmelstein]

Ha! I’ve been accused of awful things too - freepers ARE cranky. I wonder if the woman made that statement simply to sound like a nice gal and not receive death threats from PETA people. Perhaps, in her heart, she wanted that rancid beast dead with his head up on her wall.

[Hugin]

If you read the article, it says the DFW is going to trap and euthanize it. SOP for animal on human attacks. When bears are simply a nuisance, digging in garbage or destroying crops, they are trapped and relocated.

[Hugin]

“rancid beast”? Really? For doing what God put bears on earth to do, kill stuff and eat it? I’ve shot my fair share of animals, but always with respect.

[blackdog]

If it was a republican bear just think of the slow death wished upon it.

[blackdog]

So not to ask a silly question, but how do they know the weight of the bear? Do they have State Agency Weight guessors for bears? Do they bring those Saskwatch or Bigfoot hunters out to recreate the scene?

[miss marmelstein]

See? Everyone on FR is cranky!

Bear grease - used for all kinds of cooking and lovely hair pomade - is nasty and rancid.

[Ditter]

Respect? A bear who attacks people deserves whatever it gets. It would be hanging on my wall if it had attacked anyone in my family.

[Inyo-Mono]

I knew of an Indian woman in Canada who played dead and survived. Her husband told us the story. the bear approached her and slapped her around, she fell to the ground and played dead. the bear buried her with dirt rocks and sticks and then it left.

From my reading of wildlife books, playing dead only seems to work with Grizzly and Brown Bears as they may see humans as rivals to dominate. Once their opponent is down and submissive or "dead," the Grizzly may feel that they have dominated and move on. No so with Black Bears who don't seem to see it that way at all and will continue an attack even if the person is playing dead.

[blackdog]

Bears are natures heavy lifters as garbage collectors. They eat half dead, full dead, rotted dead, inside a tree dead,in the water dead, smelly dead, and femented dead, mamals, insects, amphibians, fish, fruit, or you name it. If they can't find any of that stuff, you and your little dog, too!

I had dogs that used to live to find bear poop and roll in it. They would run down bears until they tree'd them. They knew how to work them as a pair. They were gaga for anything bear.

[Ditter]

When we heard that story we were hunting grizzlies in Alberta Canada in a very remote area. the Indian man who told us about his wife was our guide. I feel certain the bear was a Grizzly but I don’t remember if he told us it was. He said the bear covered her up and intended to come back and eat her later.

[Hugin]

It absolutely should be killed. It’s not a matter of “deserves”. It’s not a criminal, just an animal doing what it’s born to do. You can kill it and still respect it.

[HandyDandy]

“If the bear is brown, lie down
if the bear is black, fight back”

[Ditter]

My husbands sister lives during the summer months in Montana. She is in a rural area and this year a mamma grizzly and 2 cubs were all over her property and around her house. The game warden set a trap and caught them after a few weeks. They had not hurt anyone so they were taken away and released.

[Hugin]

Yep. When a black bear attacks it sees you as food. Playing dead just means it will start eating you while alive. If the Indian woman was attacked by a black bear it probably wasn’t hungry, just saving her for later. She was lucky (although she may not have felt lucky at the time).

[elcid1970]

“... my old trusty 1100, with 5 shots.”

That works well on human ferals, too.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Big time infections can develop from bear claws.

[Hugin]

That’s actually a pretty good question. I know how to judge the size of a bear walking around (big bears look they have short legs and small ears because their heads and bodies are so big), but after the fact? I guess maybe the size and depth of the paw prints?

[Hugin]

“Bear grease...is nasty and rancid.”

OK, you got me there.