NEW MILFORD, Conn. — Bears have been seen in the backyards of animal owners in Connecticut as of late, and two of those encounters were witnessed just on Thursday night. FOX61 gathered information on two incidents in which a bear was trespassing in animal pens.
One bear was caught on camera climbing into a pig pen in New Milford, and the potbellies put up a fight to fend off the intruder.
Rebecca Shaw owns the two Vietnamese potbelly pigs, and her son sent over the Ring footage to FOX61.
At around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the bear climbed into the fenced-in pen and landed right next to one of the pigs, who immediately rammed into the intruding bear. Another pig emerges from its enclosure and charges for the bear, cornering it. As the pigs stood their ground, the bear then jumped out of the pen. The bear could be seen waiting around before getting closer to the fence again.
Shaw said that the bears have been "overwhelming" and a "nuisance" for the past couple of years and that the bears do not fear anything.
"Not humans, noises, alarms, etc.," Shaw told FOX61.
Shaw contacted the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection regarding the recent bear encounter but has not heard back yet.
In Wolcott, a resident reached out to FOX61 regarding an alleged bear attack on a chicken coop.
The homeowner told FOX61 a bear had attacked the coop around 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
He initially thought it was an animal stuck in the garage, but said they saw a bear breaking the nesting box off of the coop. He scared away the bear by shining a flashlight and making sounds from inside the house. The uninjured chickens are now staying safe in the house.
The homeowner said bears have been in the backyard before and it's not uncommon to see.
In this legislative session, state lawmakers have proposed a wildlife nuisance bill that would give farmers the right to shoot and kill any intruding bear if there is proof of destruction to crops and beehives.
Leah Myers is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at lmyers@fox61.com
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