NEAR PENSACOLA, Fla. (WSVN) — Surveillance cameras captured the moments a group of black bears appeared in a Florida backyard before one of them attacked the homeowner.
The homeowner says he was trying to save his dog when one of the bears bit him in the leg, forcing him to make a desperate call for help.
“I just got bit by a bear in my backyard. It tried to attack my dog, and I went to rescue my dog, and it bit me, my leg.”
The victim told dispatchers he was bleeding as the bear chased his dog toward his house near Pensacola Thursday afternoon.
“He charged me again after he bit me,” he said. “There’s no way this really just happened.”
In a statement by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the attack occurred after the man let his dog outside in his fenced-in backyard.
A neighbor only a few houses down said his surveillance video shows the black bear and her cub wandering around his driveway only ten minutes before the attack.
“They came in front of my house, first the big mama bear,” said Atti Cseh, one neighbor. “Then she turned back; she was checking on the baby, and they came this way and knocked the trash can out, and they were looking for food.”
Another neighbor said there have been signs of bears in the area for years.
“Every year we have bears come through,” the neighbor said. “Twice I’ve actually had them tear the fence down and tear the fence down again to get out.”
Others, however, are still taken aback by the surprise.
“I’ve seen coyotes, I’ve seen turtles and I saw a bobcat once, but I’ve never seen a bear on my side.”
FWC said it will attempt to locate, trap, and humanely kill the bear.
Last week alone, the state suffered its first “deadly” black bear attack in Southwest Florida.
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