Pet 350lb Bear Mauls Woman To Death

[WriteDown]

Source: Sky News

An American woman has been mauled to death by her pet black bear as she cleaned its cage.

Pennsylvania police said 37-year-old Kelly Ann Walz was killed on Sunday by the 350lb (160kg) beast.

The victim had been keeping the animal inside a 15ft by 15ft steel cage near her house in Ross Township.

Ms Walz had thrown some dog food to one side of the enclosure to distract the bear while she cleaned the other side, officials said.

But, at some point, it turned and attacked her. The beast was shot and killed.

Tim Conway, of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, told the Morning Call local newspaper: "These animals, even though they may be very docile one day, you never know....

Read more: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Bear-Mauls-Woman-To-Death-In-Ross-Township-Pennsylvania-Kelly-Ann-Walz/Article/200910115399806?lpos=World_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15399806_Bear_Mauls_Woman_To_Death_In_Ross_Towns

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I've spent a lot of time with these animals. Hard to understand how dangerous and powerful they are.

[coyote]

1. Poor Bear N/T

[pundaint]

16. That is almost as stupid as chasing bi-partisan health care reform

It is sad that the woman, despite plenty of available evidence to the contrary, thought that she had a special approach which would override the bear's nature.

My condolences to the loved ones of this woman, and here's hoping she's the last one they lose prematurely.

[Botany]

2. Keeping a black bear in a 15 x 15' pen and then going into that pen ....

..... is really a bad idea.



Bears in Pennsylvania should be in the woods.

BTW Black Bears hardly ever attack people in the wild. It is a shame that the bear had to be killed. They are really neat
creatures and I have always loved the chances when i saw them or their footprints in the wild.

[Devil_Fish]

24. yep, the real victim was the bear. NT

[bertman]

3. Amazing how dense and ignorant people are. How many examples of owners of wild

animals being killed by their "pets" will it take before they get it?

Yogi was probably tired of eating dog food. Who can blame him.

[Oregone]

4. Despite how sad this is

Im laughing inside. No really. Is that wrong?

[hedgehog]

5. A pet is a critter who can cuddle up with you on the couch.

(allowances made for small critters like hamsters that may be afraid of cuddling.) An animal that can't cuddle with you because it's apt one day to eat your face is not a pet. It's a status symbol.

[ThisThreadIsSatire]

6. BREAKING: Death Ruled a Suicide... n/t

[harmonicon]

7. three words that should never appear in this order: pet black bear (nt)

[Warpy]

8. There is a good reason a lot of animals were never domesticated

and people who try to keep them as pets usually end up being candidates for Darwin awards sooner or later.

Around here, it's the wolf hybrid. They are beautiful, intelligent animals who are totally unpredictable.

BTW, that cage was far too small. If she'd lived through it, she'd likely be facing animal abuse charges. I can't fault the poor bear for having had enough and letting her have it.

[AlienGirl]

14. The sweetest, smartest canine I ever knew was a wolf/G-shep mix

He wasn't unpredictable, as long as you recognized that he was not going to act like a "normal" dog. For example, if you did not outrank him in his pack, and he was sitting on the spot where you wanted to sit, you were just gonna have to sit somewhere else. Sternly telling him "Down!" wouldn't work for anyone but his owners (the alpha pair).

He let all the kids climb all over him for hours. They could pull his ears, roll around on his belly, bury their face in his neck-ruff, and he would tolerate it all with good cheer.

I ranked the same as him. He out-weighed me by ten pounds. I loved to wrestle around with him. Sometimes I'd sleep over, and his people would find us curled together in a "den" made from the papa-san chair.

I miss him. :cry: When I go, I think I'll hear his big wolf-feet pounding toward me on the shore and see his big, laughing face again as he knocks me over in greeting.

Tucker

[boobooday]

9. Any living thing trapped in a cage is bound to be pissed n/t

[timo]

10. hmmmm

Guess she never saw that show about that idiot timothy treadwell who got eaten by bears in alaska....its a bear, it kills things and eats them, its what it does, surprise.........NO, another EPIC FAIL!!

[Gman2]

11. Screw the beast label.

[Mariana]

19. Label? The word "beast" has been used correctly.

Remember this is not American English. A beast is merely a non-human animal, especially a large four-footed mammal. A bear qualifies.

[Coventina]

12. She also had a tiger and a lion, which begs the phrase:

Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY!

Anyway, I consider her to be the bease, not the bear.

:-(

[Dirtyhairy]

13. If someone locked me in a cage and made me eat dog food, I'd maul them too.

[Lugnut]

15. They killed the bear for being a bear.

Poor bear. :(

[elocs]

17. I have worked in a zoo and cleaned the cages of black bears.

At that time (30 years ago) the up to 3 black bears were in a large cage that was probably built by the WPA. It was a large and open enclosure that was divided in half. To clean the cage I would get the bears onto one side and then pull the door shut so I could clean the other side. It worked well and kept me safe.

One time we had just 2 bears, and adult and a cub that was maybe 5' tall when it stood up. The cub didn't seem too dangerous to me so I left it on my side when I cleaned. It was playful and I would cuff it by the neck when it stood up and walked to me. The trouble was that the more I played the more the cub wanted to play and to tell the truth he was very strong for his size and before I could get the door open to get out he was on me again so 'round and 'round we went. My boss saw this and thought it was funny, just thinking I was playing but the truth was that I was starting to get tired. Eventually I got out safely and never did it again.

The next week the head zookeeper whose qualifications for the job were that he used to work on a farm did the same thing that I did, left the cub on his side when he was cleaning it. He did though make a big, big mistake in that he turned his back on the bear cub when he was cleaning. The cub came up from behind and bit him in the arm. It didn't attack him or maul him, but it was probably playing with him like he was another bear (this guy was nearly 300 pounds, so he probably looked big enough to be a bear). It reminded me though of the old saying: "The little boys threw rocks at the frogs in jest, but the frogs died in earnest."

On my local NPR station last week they had a guy on the call-in show who was a black bear expert from northern Minnesota. He was probably in his middle to late 60s and he had been doing his job for 42 years--catching and tagging black bears. He said that most of what people thought they knew to be facts about black bears was simply not true. This refers to black bears: never get between a mother and his cubs--he said this was false, that he had numerous times banded bear cubs who were screaming bloody murder and mom was nearby and didn't do a thing. He said the most likely thing that would happen if you ran from a black bear is that the bear would run in the opposite direction, that the bear is very likely to be much more afraid of you than you are of him. He also developed a pepper spray for bears who might get too close that is 1/6th the strength of the spray people use for muggers. He described how when in his rural yard a black bear got too close to his 4 year old granddaughter so she sprayed it. The next day he was out in the yard and the same bear was there and it was not afraid, but when the bear saw his granddaughter come out it ran away and climbed a tree.

Wild animals are wild. They are not pets and when they attack their human owners it is not proper to impugn some kind of viscous motives for their actions. Probably they are being just what they are, a wild animal, and they are reacting as they would with another one of their own kind. The problem is that compared to most wild animals that can be dangerous, humans are fragile creatures.

[Botany]

21. Wild animals are wild.

Well said!


I have been around black bears in the wild and never felt any fear that they would attack but I always left them alone and let them
go and do what ever they wanted to do ...... I remember one time seeing a bear looking for grubs pick up and rip apart a huge
tree that ha fallen .... although rotten the tree had to be 500 LBS + and the bear flipped it like a toothpick.

[mule_train]

18. you wouldn't expect a 350lb pet bear to attack you

what a terrible shock

this is terrible but i imagined peter, from family guy saying 'like the time i cleaned the cage of my 350lb bear...'

[LeftHander]

22. Ahh get in cage with food. Bear thinks you are going to take the food...

Bear stops you...

[StarryNite]

20. The way she kept that bear

was cruel and inhumane. I can't feel sorry for her. The bear was the real victim here.

[NeoConsSuck]

23. I wonder if I should get rid of

my pack of pet Hyenas. They're so cute, just like spotted dogs. But they get really frisky at night.

Seriously, you keep a wild animal as a 'pet', and wild things are going to happen.

BTW, I disagree with this being moved from LBN.

[PADEMJES12]

25. HOUSE PETS

Might i suggest a hampster or a fish tank for pets....

[tigereye]

26. you've got to be kidding.

Why in hell would someone (anywhere for that matter) have a bear in a cage for God's sake. :wtf:


And who the hell thinks that they should be pets? on edit, she apparently had a tiger and a lion as well, with licenses for them...