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Mark_Griffin
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- Sep 13, 2006
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[color=000000]This bear attack happened a few days ago over in the Catskills. It's too bad one of her cubs was apparently caught and will be destroyed. This account is from a Catskill newspaper.
She said events unfolded quickly starting around 10 PM, when she and her husband Herry’s dog, a Terrier named Digger, began to bark outside after being let out. As she went to investigate, the bear attacked the dog about 30 feet from the house. As the dog, which wasn’t injured, managed to break away, the bear turned and charged Pearlman. She was knocked to the ground and the sweatshirt she was wearing was ripped as if clawed.
Although she was knocked to the ground and suffered some lacerations to the head, she was not seriously injured. Pearlman and her husband, both Emergency Medical Technicians, own and operate the Terrace Farm Nursery on Old Plank Road, just east of the Phoenicia business district. Following the incident she was immediately treated at the scene by her husband and later checked into Benedictine’s emergency room for required rabies shots.
Although stiff and sore following the incident, Pearlman said she is otherwise OK. She said she is not sure if it was due to the bear or the fall she took Monday night. Due to the attack, the State Department of Environmental Conservation live trapped a bear on the Pearlman’s property, but neither DEC officials nor Pearlman think it was the bear that attacked her. The trap will be reset. The bear caught will be destroyed and tested for rabies.
Although the altercation lasted only seconds, Pearlman made it clear that it was a harrowing experience that left her, and Digger, badly shaken up. “I was scared,” she said. “I didn’t sleep all night afterwards.” At the time of the attack, the bear did have an escape route she said, and was not cornered by her or the dog. “It happened so fast…something came flying around the side of the house and we collided…as soon as it knocked me down it turned and left,” she said.
After the attack, the bear remained in the immediate vicinity of the house for the entire night, apparently foraging for food. On the two preceding nights a bear, presumably the same one, had broken into the feed room of their barn, ripping a heavy door from its hinges to get to a 50-lb bag of dog food and some horse feed.
The Pearlman’s, who operate a small farm on their property, believe the animal to be female, possibly 300 to 400 lbs, most likely with two cubs. It is believed that the bear caught Monday night is one of them.
According to DEC bear specialist Matt Merchant, the incident appears to be the first such bear attack on a human in our region since a 2002 incident near Ellenville where an infant was fatally mauled after being taken from a porch by a black bear.
Merchant said that based on the Pearlman’s accounts, it didn’t sound as if the attack was predatory but instead a defensive act, with a mother bear possibly startled both by the dog and seeking to protect her cubs. According to Merchant there are probably between 1,200 and 1,500 bears in the Catskills.[/color]
She said events unfolded quickly starting around 10 PM, when she and her husband Herry’s dog, a Terrier named Digger, began to bark outside after being let out. As she went to investigate, the bear attacked the dog about 30 feet from the house. As the dog, which wasn’t injured, managed to break away, the bear turned and charged Pearlman. She was knocked to the ground and the sweatshirt she was wearing was ripped as if clawed.
Although she was knocked to the ground and suffered some lacerations to the head, she was not seriously injured. Pearlman and her husband, both Emergency Medical Technicians, own and operate the Terrace Farm Nursery on Old Plank Road, just east of the Phoenicia business district. Following the incident she was immediately treated at the scene by her husband and later checked into Benedictine’s emergency room for required rabies shots.
Although stiff and sore following the incident, Pearlman said she is otherwise OK. She said she is not sure if it was due to the bear or the fall she took Monday night. Due to the attack, the State Department of Environmental Conservation live trapped a bear on the Pearlman’s property, but neither DEC officials nor Pearlman think it was the bear that attacked her. The trap will be reset. The bear caught will be destroyed and tested for rabies.
Although the altercation lasted only seconds, Pearlman made it clear that it was a harrowing experience that left her, and Digger, badly shaken up. “I was scared,” she said. “I didn’t sleep all night afterwards.” At the time of the attack, the bear did have an escape route she said, and was not cornered by her or the dog. “It happened so fast…something came flying around the side of the house and we collided…as soon as it knocked me down it turned and left,” she said.
After the attack, the bear remained in the immediate vicinity of the house for the entire night, apparently foraging for food. On the two preceding nights a bear, presumably the same one, had broken into the feed room of their barn, ripping a heavy door from its hinges to get to a 50-lb bag of dog food and some horse feed.
The Pearlman’s, who operate a small farm on their property, believe the animal to be female, possibly 300 to 400 lbs, most likely with two cubs. It is believed that the bear caught Monday night is one of them.
According to DEC bear specialist Matt Merchant, the incident appears to be the first such bear attack on a human in our region since a 2002 incident near Ellenville where an infant was fatally mauled after being taken from a porch by a black bear.
Merchant said that based on the Pearlman’s accounts, it didn’t sound as if the attack was predatory but instead a defensive act, with a mother bear possibly startled both by the dog and seeking to protect her cubs. According to Merchant there are probably between 1,200 and 1,500 bears in the Catskills.[/color]
