CONNECTICUT, USA — An elderly woman walking a dog Friday morning was attacked by a bear in Avon. FOX61 obtained the 911 call initially reporting the incident on Berkshire Crossing Road.
“I have a neighbor that was walking the trail and a bear attacked her and her dog,” a woman said. “The bear has gone off into the woods,” she adds. “How bad is the wound on her leg?,” a dispatcher asks to which she responds, “She’s bleeding. It’s superficial but she’s really shaken up.”
That was the second time last week wildlife officials were forced to euthanize a bear due to its interaction with humans. In Salisbury, a bear was euthanized for repeatedly entering the same home.
Saurabh Kumar runs in the area of Berkshire Crossing Road where the attack was reported last week. It’s common for Kumar to run into a bear rummaging through someone’s trash.
“Just stay away until they’re done. If they’re in my path and I cannot avoid them, or I just change my route. I don’t think I should be near them and I don’t think they want to be near us. They’re eating. That’s all they’re doing.”
But human-bear interaction can’t always be avoided when people leave food sources like bird feeders and trash outside.
“They’re what we call habituated in food conditions. We’re basically training them that people’s houses are good places to find food,” said Jenny Dickson.
One thing DEEP doesn’t want you to do when encountering a bear: take out your phone because you could be teaching that bear to be comfortable around you.
Instead, Wildlife Division Director Jenny Dickson said you should yell, honk, make noise and try to scare the bear away. She added, “It’s what you’re doing to your community. It’s kind of selfish of me to want to feed birds at a time when they don’t really need my help when I’m really training a wild animal to do something bad and I’m putting my community at risk.”
But what can be done to manage the bear population? A bill advanced out of the environmental committee that would allow farmers to apply for permits to hunt bears as a way to protect livestock. It also lays out rules for ways people can defend themselves against bears and prohibits the feeding of wild animals.
But a section allowing for a bear hunt was stripped from the bill and some lawmakers want it back.
“The bear hunting and bear lottery in the states that it has been used as a bear management plan it reinstills the fear of human beings into the bears,” said Rep. Karen Reddington-Hughes of Woodbury.
Karen Reddington-Hughes represents Bethlehem where bears have reportedly attacked chickens and other livestock.
“Without that kind of a management program, the bears just keep coming further and further outside of their comfort zone,” she said.
Hundreds of people testified in support and opposition of a limited bear hunt during a public hearing session last month.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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