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friday,1, may 15, 2015 // issue122 49 friday, june 2018 // ISSUE
Bear attacks dog, man attacks bear
A MAY 16 INCIDENT WHEREIN A DOG WAS KILLED BY A BLACK BEAR was also
LET THE LIGHT IN // JESSICA DANIELS, MYCHOL ORMANDY AND ERIN STAINTON ENJOY THE INAUGURAL COLOURFUL WALK ALONG JASPER’S NEW RAINBOW CROSSWALK. // BOB COVEY
the scene of a humanbear conflict in which the human is lucky to have escaped without serious injury. Multiple media outlets reported, and Parks Canada confirmed, that a dog did not survive an encounter with a bear after escaping from a car which had pulled over on the side of the road near Kerkeslin campground, 36 km south of the Jasper townsite. The driver of the car had pulled over to view the bear when the dog escaped through an open window. After escaping, the dog harassed the bear by approaching it and barking at it. “The bear responded defensively towards the dog as it would to any other predator and
unfortunately the dog did not survive the attack,” spokesperson Steve Young said on May 22 via email. What Young didn’t say, and what The Jasper Local has learned in the meantime, is that the dog’s owner, after seeing his pet being attacked by the bear, jumped on the bear’s back in an attempt to save the dog. Resource conservation staff conducted an interview with the man after they went back to locate the bear. They found the man looking for his dog. He told them he tried to save his dog by setting upon the bear. A Parks Canada employee who heard the report over the radio said in more than 15 years of working for the agency she had never heard of a visitor trying to wrestle a bear. “He’s lucky,” she said. “It sounded crazy.”
bob covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com