Wounded Black Bear Attacks Woman Tracking It in Pend Oreille County
The bear had been shot with a crossbow the day before. It chased the couple's dog, then attacked her; officers later killed it.
A woman was injured by a black bear on Sunday, October 18, on a rural property outside Cusick in Pend Oreille County, Washington, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said. She was treated at a local hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Spokane.
The afternoon before, her husband had been lawfully hunting black bear on their private property off Reynolds Creek Road and shot a bear with a crossbow; it ran off. The couple went looking for it the next morning with their dog. The bear chased the dog and attacked the woman, and the couple drove straight to the hospital.
Fish and Wildlife officers, a Forest Service officer and a Kalispel Tribal officer found a bear near the site with the help of dogs that afternoon, and a WDFW officer killed it because of the attack and its injuries. It was sent to the state's animal disease lab in Pullman for evaluation.
Attacks are rare. Washington's only recorded fatal black bear attack was in 1974, and the state has documented a little over 20 injuries from black bear encounters since 1970. For any bear encounter, the department's advice is to identify yourself as human by standing tall, waving your arms and talking in a low voice, and to back away slowly without running.
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