Even More Bearifying
I posted about the Maryland family that had a very scary run-in with a bear a few days ago. The homeowner shot and wounded the bear after it attacked and tried to get into the house. Well, the story just got more disturbing.
Mike hurried into the living room with his gun, unloaded. Sending the nephew back into the gun room for a shell, he grabbed hold of the air conditioner alongside his wife and tried to keep the bulky unit from being ripped out of the window. Once he got his gun loaded, he managed to squeeze it through a crack between the window sill and the air conditioner. When the bear grabbed the barrel, Stanton fired blindly. The No. 4 shotgun pellets struck the animal in the head and neck but didn't kill it.
The wounded bear collapsed in the yard, while Mike went into the basement and peered out, concerned that the animal would manage to wander back into the woods. His wife called 911, and an officer with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources showed up about a half hour later and killed the bear.
"There have been rabid bears over the years, but it's a very uncommon thing to hear of," said Harry Spiker, a black bear biologist for DNR. In recent years, he said, rabid bears have been confirmed in Pennsylvania and in Manitoba, Canada, but never in Maryland. "It's really atypical," he said.
Spiker said the bear would have had to come in contact with a species that commonly carry rabies, either a raccoon, a bat or a skunk. He said it was unlikely other rabid bears were in the area. "Once it gets past the incubation period, they only survive a couple of days," he said.
The Stanton family is receiving rabies treatments because Mike Stanton came in contact with the animal's blood. And you thought Cujo was scary.
By feeblemind, Wednesday, 5 September , 2007 @ 7:07 pm
Makes you wonder what would have happened if guns were illegal and the homeowner had not had one?