Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
British Columbia Sport & Outdoor Lounge => Hunters' Cabin => Topic started by: troutbreath on October 06, 2008, 08:15:40 PM
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Go to the web site to watch the interview :)
WEB FIRST - Attacked 100 Mile man kills bear with stick
Published: October 06, 2008 11:00 AM
Updated: October 06, 2008 4:45 PM
By Carole Rooney
Free Press staff
Walking softly in bear territory may not be a good idea, but carrying a big stick certainly is – when you're as brave as Jim West, that is.
West was out walking alone with his dogs in the forest behind the gymkhana grounds near Green Lake early Saturday afternoon when he was attacked by a black bear.
"I was looking for moose signs because my stepson has a limited entry tag," he said in an interview with the Free Press shortly after the incident.
As they strolled along facing into the wind, West was calling out to his black labs, Shadow and Chopper, who were happily flushing grouse and wagging their tails.
"All of a sudden I heard a kind of a huff and a growl off to my right, and when I turned around there was a bear six feet away. I had no opportunity to hit the ground like I should, so I just started to kick it in the face. It jumped up and took a snap at my face, split my upper lip, and then I hit the ground, and it jumped on top of me, tore my scalp and bit my left arm."
At this point the dogs came back and managed to distract the bear, so it proceeded to go after them. As soon as West moved, the bear attacked him again, putting him back on the ground a second time, and cutting his right arm. Then the dogs intervened again and West heard one of them yelp.
"I just jumped up and grabbed a stick, and the bear turned around and came running right at me and I hit it once; it started to shake it's head, and I just kept swinging like it was a sledgehammer and I ended up crushing it's skull."
Not surprisingly, once the conservation officer who attended the scene had confirmed the bear was indeed dead from blows to the head, he told West that no one had ever done this before.
"I don't know why, it was the easiest thing in the world to do – when you have a choice of either living or dying. I felt that I'd been on the ground twice and, if I went down a third time, I wouldn't get up. I wasn't gonna go down, so I just starting swinging."
Once West observed blood running from the bear's nose, he knew the job was done and the bear was dead or dying, so he dropped the stick and told his dogs it was time to go. After walking at least a kilometre back to his truck with his shirt wrapped around his head to stem the bleeding, West then drove himself and his dogs to nearby Little Horse Lodge, arriving at around 2 p.m.
"Tim came in and said 'I just got attacked by a bear, so call 911,'" said Ellie Scott of Little Horse Lodge. "I helped with First Aid, and to patch him up and calm him down – he was in shock."
Luckily, although his home is in the area, West remained rational enough to stop at the lodge, in case emergency personnel had trouble finding his place.
According to Scott of Little Horse Lodge, the conservation officer went out immediately to search for the bear and subsequently found a cub as well, which was put down. She also said that although they were told a special attack group will be investigating the cause of the incident, she believed the root of the trouble was likely West being positioned between the bear and her cub.
Ambulance and First Responders arrived approximately half hour after the 9-1-1 call and transported West to hospital, where he received 60 stitches to his scalp, face, left arm (in three places), right arm and lip.
"I haven't been able to find any injuries on my dogs. I think one of them may have been cuffed with a paw, so I'm going to check them out again later – right now they are pretty excited to see me," said West on Sunday, just shortly after returning home from picking up his large Labs, who were looked after by Scott and her family at the lodge while he was in hospital.
"In that sort of situation, you only one choice – it's live or die."
The Conservation Officer told him he was very lucky to have survived such an attack. "Most people are too scared to think about living."
West doesn't think of himself as overly tough, however, and maintains the belief that for anyone placed in that situation, "it's just a matter of whether you want to live or not."
It also doesn't hurt, though, to have strength, courage -- and carry a big stick.
Find this article at:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_cariboo/100milefreepress/news/WEB_FIRST_-_Attacked_100_Mile_man_kills_bear_with_stick.html
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Wow... that's crazy.
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I read somewhere that you should fight back with a black bear and play dead with a grizzly.
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With the number of grizzlys around here and the number attacks in the spots I fish I have been reading up on it quite a bit. Here are my thoughts on bears.
They way to respond to a bear is very situational. If the bear was planning to eat you (ie stalking behavior), then playing dead just makes it easier and fighting back is your best bet. If you stumbled on the bear and startled it, then maybe playing dead would be the right thing, but I was advised to slowly walk back from a grizzly and keep talking to it, but no yelling or arm waving... For a black bear, I would make some noise and arm waving, especially if they are checking you out (standing)... If you get near a cub, get out of there before the mother finds you and makes a greasy mess of you.
Around these parts, the grizzlys are tracked extensively, and where there are numerous sightings or known dens, trails are closed or manditory group sizes (of 4 or more) are implemented, as there have never been attacks on large groups.
Some of the recent attacks around here:
A couple years ago some one went running in a closed area near canmore and ended up getting eaten. There were several mistakes made: 1. going into a place where a bear was known to be. 2. running is quiet and also invites a chase. 3. I seem to recall she climbed a tree to get away which doesn't work.
A few weeks ago, a fisherman was mauled by a black bear on a small creek (his rod got busted! I wonder if they warrenty that), and the problem seems to be that the sound of the water masked his noise, so he litterally snuck up on the bear and probably scared the bejeebers out of it.
If you go out into bear country, you should be prepared. Ie, make enough noise to alert bears that you are around. Leave your dogs at home unless they are trained to stay away from bears (they will attack bears and come running back to you). Carry bear spray and or bangers, and have them accessible (not in the back pocket of your vest, Mark ;) )
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I read somewhere that you should fight back with a black bear and play dead with a grizzly.
You do really grizzly DOES eat dead animals right?
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I read the subject line and thought to myself..."What was a bear doing with a stick?" ;)
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If you play dead with a Griz it will most likely slap you around a bit, maybe bite you a few times and If your lucky it will either leave you alone or slightly worse , dig a shallow hole and put you in it and piss on you. Griz love carrion more than fresh meat.
If you smell rotten meat in the bush. Go the other way.
Black bears will just eat you plain and simple. Thats unless you beat its skull in with a branch. :D
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well seeing that my dad and i ran into a grizz sow and 2 cubs at 10ft in revelstoke, just standing there and not doing anything works good too. Scariest moment of my entire life, we were down wind walking down an old trail, beginning a stalk on a boar up the slash and boom here's a sow and her cubs, what fun, when u have the gun strapped to ur back, and the clip in ur pocket. So we stood off for what was probably 20 secs, felt like 2 hours, and then one of the cubs took off the the mother and other cub followed, some one was watching us! ::) But honestly i say fighting is ur best bet, just dont give up, both species are obnivores, and eat carrien so whether ur dead, alive, rotting, breathing u can be seen as a food item.
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when ever i encounter a bear on the road i blast my car horn for a long time even if i am past it. i guess it will remember the encounter with a car or human as unpleasant. i will carry my easy fold out knife all the time now when fishing or out in the bush. the city folks think i am nuts for bringing the bear spray or big knife while we are hiking or biking in the bush. i dont know if we would have time to get the cannister or knife out in time because it is usually put away deep in a pocket so people do not think we are paranoid. my bear spray is the commercial variety which came with a great carry pouch for wearing on your belt or fishing vest. so if you see a guy wearing a big can of bear spray while fishing thats me.
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I agree with Jonny, it all depends on the situation.
If the bear is bent on eating you for supper, playing dead will only make it easier.
If the bear is threatened or is defending her cubs, playing dead could help to eliminate threat .
All in all, I hope you all remember this thread next time you are attacked by a bear.
Sorry, just kidding... ::):o :o :o
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I carry a can of bear spray with me whenever I go into the bush. The instructions say that it will spray 30 ft for 10 seconds. I just hope that if I ever need to use it that my hand doesn't shake so much that I miss. My closest call with a bear was about 2 AM while I was making my way to the restroom at a campground. I was carrying a large flashlight but it was quite moonlit out so I didn't have the light on. Just as I rounded the end of the building I heard a noise and smelled a smell stronger than what should have been there. I flicked on the light and there 5 ft away was a black bear that was rummaging thru the trash can. I don't know who was more surprised as the bear went one way and I the other.
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That must have been a healthy sized stick to break a bear skull... I like bear spray.
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That must have been a healthy sized stick to break a bear skull... I like bear spray.
i like napalm when dealing with bears
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It didnt mention how big the bear was.... But heres another example of why dog is mans best friend.
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'cept for when the dog runs off and brings the angry critter back to you...
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I don't know how to test a can of bear spray without using too much, but last year after packing my trusty can of spray with me for about 4 years I tried to use it on a domestic cat that had been beating up on my cats, alls that happened was a small dribble came out and ran all over my hand. I don't know how long it had been a dud' might have been that way from brand new but I do know that it had given me a very false sense of security for some time. Actualy within about 5 minutes of getting the spray on my hand I managed to wipe my face with it and found that really unpleasant, so I guess if I had been involved in a bear attact I coulda rubbed some in his eyes as I was going down lol. Really I shiver to think of the amount of time I spent in the bush alone mushroom picking actualy thinking I had some sort of defence with me in case of an attact. Now I will buy a new can every second year at least, I can just imagine what it would have been like facing off with a bear or cougar and having that damn can misfuntion like that. I also always pack a hunting knife with me but I really think all that would give me is a faint hope of a chance at best. I talked to a guy last year that had been mauled by a black bear and he said it was just like being in the middle of a dog fight instantly with all the snapping and clawing being completely overwhelming and the bears arm strength being far greater than any humans. BTW no cat was actually hurt during this as I was the only one that got to "enjoy" the spray it was actually a source of great humour for some time around my place to everyone except me. What a lucky guy that was to kill that bear with a stick.
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