A man stabbed a black bear to death with a 15-cm hunting knife, saying he knew he would otherwise become “lunch” after it attacked him and his dog on a canoeing portage in northern Ontario.
Tom Tilley, a 55-year-old from Waterloo, Ont., said his American Staffordshire dog growled a warning, then rushed to his defence as the bear came at them on a trail north of Wawa on Friday.
As the dog battled with the nearly 90-kilogram bear, Tilley jumped on its back and stabbed it with his knife.
“Love is a very powerful emotion and my thought right away was: ‘You’re not going to kill my dog,’” Tilley told the Waterloo Region Record.
“I really consider my dog a hero. Without that first warning, I would have had the bear clamping down on my neck.”
An avid outdoorsman, Tilley was four days into a 12-day canoe trip. He said he heard his dog growl and noticed the bear closing in on him. He waved his arms and slowly backed away. But the bear came closer, cutting off his escape route.
“That’s when I knew I had a serious problem… I was lunch,” he said. “The bear took a few steps down the trail and clamped its mouth on the back of my dog. It gave me the quick opportunity I needed to run around to the back of the bear, get on its back and with my knife start stabbing it.”
After making sure the animal was dead, Tilley realized that both he and dog had been bitten. ‘‘That’s when I knew I had a serious problem… I was lunch.’-Tom Tilley, a 55-year-old from Waterloo, Ont.’
He dragged his canoe across a short portage and paddled for about an hour before he came across a pair of Americans who had a satellite phone. They called for help and two hours later, a cargo plane arrived to take Tilley to Wawa for medical attention. He was released from hospital shortly after. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/23072006/3/canada-canoeist-stabs-bear-death-ontario.html
Is the American Staffordshire a pitbull? I think the law was passed against only a select few breeds, and existing dogs can still be neutered and muzzled.
Pitbull saves mans life by offering his own. Somehow I don’t think that headline would fly very well. Mainly becuase it does not include the words ‘maul’, ‘child’, and ‘vicious’.
You don’t hear the good stories about pitbulls. They don’t sell fear - and therefore don’t make news.
I think there was a more recent one that was almost exactly the same. Some emanciated cougar jumped on some guys back, he pulled out his pocket knife and stabbed it to death. Walked a real long way with his scalp hanging open and stuff.
Could be the same one, but i’m sure it was more recent .
That’s a good find, I like those type of articles.
I read one a while back about a 72 year-old man attacked by a cheetah while he was tending to his farm. Apparently the old man threw down the machete he had(wtf? cheetah must have been too close), then the man proceeded to shove his hand in the cat’s mouth and ripped out the cheetah’s tongue. The 72 year-old farmer’s neighbor heard the screams and came over and finished the cheetah off(with a machete I believe).
I will find the article when I am not as tired.
I think both old men are tough as nails and lucky as hell they lived. Farmers usually are tough dudes though, oh and apparently Canadians who love their dog.
Humans domesticated dogs IN THE BACK COUNTRY for just this sort of thing. To guard us and our livestock.
This pit heard the bear coming, gave the warning and eventually his life, so that his owner could live.
There is no evidence to suggest that the bear was coming for the dog. As far as I know bears try to stay away from dogs and wolves in the first place. Unless this was a mother protecting her cubs and that was not indicated in the article. If the bear was coming for anybody it was probably the man.
“Bears will not intentionally attack dogs, but they can sometimes be startled or surprised by a dog if they are sneaking around a house looking for birdfeeders or following the smell of pet food. Bear will often run and tree when disturbed by dogs, but a parting swat can’t be ruled out in close quarters.” http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wildlife/faqs_black_bears.htm
Taking dogs out with you in the country, camping, or just about anywhere is a good idea provided you have good dogs. There are too many stories of dogs saving human lives from snakes, and in this case a bear, etc. That is what they are there for. Thier heightened senses and a million years of instinct minimizes the risk of any potential danger from predators.
There are a lot of others. But they aren’t widely reported. It is really shame. Because pits are some of the most loyal dogs of all times. They will gladly lay down thier lives for ours. It is a shame we don’t show them the same kindness.
I suppose I was being unfair, given the limited info given in the story.
I do a lot of camping, hiking, etc. and I often see people out in the wilderness around here with dogs that aren’t properly controlled though. Uncontrolled and undisciplined dogs can be a nuisance and a danger in that context. I’m not sure about bears coming after dogs, but I have definitely heard stories of uncontrolled dogs going after bears, then high-tailing it back to their owner with an angry bear in pursuit when things got ugly. Obviously, the owner is the real problem in those cases though, not the dog.
Cougars, which we have a lot of around here, will sometimes go after smaller dogs for food though.
As far as Pitbulls being generally good dogs, I agree with you. I’ve known lots of people with them, and never had even the slightest problem. 99% of the pitbull ‘horror stories’ I’ve heard have been to do with dogs owned by macho/violent/criminal sacks of shit.
Oh, and here’s another Canadian vs. wild animal story. Grappling a cougar, this time…
2005, 09 April. Peter Bysterveld, a 23-year-old, 210 pound, 6’ 3" tall student at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, was attacked at about 4:30 p.m. MDT by one cougar of a pair he and his friend Sarah McKay encountered while on the last leg of a long hike. It was about 12-15 degrees C (54-59 degrees F) and sunny. Sarah and Peter had been carrying on a conversation but perhaps not loudly enough for the cougars to hear them before they approached where the 2 cougars were sitting among trees some 7 meters (about 22-25 feet) ahead on Windy Point Trail in the Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary in Kananaskis Country (20 km west of Turner Valley which, in turn, is about 30 km southwest of Calgary).
Once I noticed the cougars off to the side of the trail I began to yell and make some noise. [One of them] then proceeded to run at me. I looked for a rock or stick to defend myself but there was none to be found. So then I proceeded to run down the trail [to] get the cougar away from Sarah.
As Sarah watched in horror from behind a tree, Bysterveld ran down the hill and lost his footing in a muddy patch at the bottom of the hill.
After I had fallen on my chest, the cougar pounced on the back of my left leg. I had covered up my neck because I thought it would have gone for it instead of my leg.[I][SIZE=“3”] I wrestled with it for awhile, approximately 1 - 2 minutes. When I felt it start to bite into my left calf, I somehow managed to get it off before it sunk its teeth in too far. The cat then looked a little stunned that it had been knocked off.
At this time I got onto my back, with the cougar on it’s side, and took the opportunity to grab its back 2 hind legs and then its front legs and toss it like a hay bale for about 15-20 feet.[/SIZE][/I] I then proceeded to pick up a stick I found and started yelling at the cougar again and waving the stick to make myself look big. The cougar looked at me with what I thought was a surprised look on its face and took a couple of steps towards me. I kept swinging the stick and yelling, and it then backed off and disappeared down in the gully on the side of the trail.
[B]I am not 100% sure how I got a hold of all the cougar’s legs. I do have some big hands, and I did grab up a little ways on the leg so it was not right on the paw. I am sure that my hand was not interlocked around the other side. It was just basically enough to get a decent hold that it could not squirm out of and which I could use to toss it away from me quickly. That’s about all I really remember because it happened so fast that it just seemed like the best thing to do at the time. I didn’t have much time to be scared. I was just trying to survive. I didn’t want to be taken down by a cat. I think being bigger helped, and I think he was shocked that I picked him up and threw him.
I then proceeded to walk backwards down the trail for awhile until I was convinced that the cougar was not stalking me. I then ran to catch up to Sarah.
I am still not sure why the cougar attacked, the only reasons I can come up with are that it might have been startled as we came up on it along the path. It could have smelt the lunch meat I had in my backpack, but it was in a sealed plastic bag in the backpack. The last reason I can think of is it might have been really hungry because it had not been able to kill anything lately but, I am not to sure on that one. But I am very sure the cougars were not stalking us at all.[/B]
Reunited with Sarah, the injured Bysterveld, covered in scratches on his arms and the bite to his leg, walked the last 5km back to the car and drove to the ranger station where he called in the attack. Then he drove to the hospital to get checked out. Treatment included a tetanus booster and subsequent rabies shots, as the cougars were not found.
Bysterveld estimated the cougar weighed about 70 pounds, about the size of a small golden retriever. The other cougar was not seen again but seemed about the same weight and age. Wildlife officers closed the area where the attack occurred to track the animals, but as of 04/12/2005 Bysterveld believed the search had been called off.
Sources: (Phone interview with Peter Bysterveld, 04/11/2005 and 2 emails, 04/12/2005 / 4/13/2005) (The Edmunton Sun; Student fights off cougar attack; Nadia Moharib, Sun Media; 04/11/2005) (CBC Edmunton; Hiker fends off cougar; 04/11/2005)
I will add that if it’s me vs. some animal out in the wild there is no other dog on this planet I want more than a pitbull at my side. They won’t win against a bear or a big cat. But they won’t give up either.
It is that ‘gameness’ and loyalty that will buy me enough time to survive.
I see bears everyday in Buttfuck, Nowhere…I’ve never yelled at a bear to fuck off and not had it fuck off…humans, higher on the food chain and the bears know it, for the most part.
