A black bear broke into a house in Wisconsin, attacking a husband and wife while their children were asleep. The couple fought back with a knife at first but were forced to shoot and kill the bear after it crashed through a window.
Larry Woebbeking, Taylor County Sheriff, says it’s the first time he’s seen anything like it.
“We have bear activity up here, but this is the first attack of this nature that I’m aware of,” Woebbeking said. “This bear just turned and charged without hesitation. Charged the house, busted through the window. It had to actually come up and into the window, this was not a patio door.”
According to the report, the couple saw the bear trying to break into a bird feeder. They yelled at the bear in an attempt to scare it off when it turned around and attacked them.
The sheriff said they ultimately did what they had to do to survive. According to neighbors, the family is doing okay, although the husband and wife did suffer some injuries themselves.
“This wasn’t something that they could just walk away from,” Woebbeking said. “It crashed through the window and immediately attacked. At that point you’re fighting for your life.”
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Brad Koele, a wildlife specialist speaking for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said they did the right thing by trying to scare the bear off from inside their home. And the couple normally brings their bird feeder in at night, too.
“Remove the bird feeders,” he said. “If you have a grill outside, make sure the grill is clean.” Koele pointed out a few simple ways to scare off bears, including shouting and using clothes to make yourself look larger, which works more often than not.
“The bear could have used that hazing and interaction as a reaction to defending that food source,” Koele said. “It could have been startled and aggressively responded.”
Koele also said the bear attack was completely abnormal, but that if a bear becomes violent, the best possible solution in some cases is fighting back. Neighbors believe that the bear became aggressive over her cub.