5-Month-Old Killed By Bear At Summer Bungalow Colony

Aug 19, 2002 5:19 pm US/Eastern

(CBS)-(FALLSBURG, N.Y. )-A bear killed an infant Monday afternoon as it tried to drag the girl into the woods, officials said.

The baby, Ester Schwimmer of Brooklyn, was snatched out of her stroller by the bear at the bungalow colony, police said.

Isaac Abraham, a community leader from Williamsburg in Brooklyn, said witnesses told him the 5-month-old girl was pronounced dead at a Ellenville Hospital upon arrival.

Mike Fraser, a state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman, said the baby was in a stroller in

While this is a little off topic, I thought it would be of interest.

Sarcasm on:

These people were in the woods. They should have been more carefull about their camp chores. Too bad about the Bear, it could have been a great game animal.

Sarcasm off.

I hope I have not offended anyone, but this case exactly makes my point that we have to constantly reassert ourselves at the top of the food chain.

Greetings all,
As a parent I feel for loss the girls family has sustained.
I really feel obligated to reply for at least two reasons.
One, I have hunted for bears and lions(cougers) with hounds for years, and here is OR it became against the law to pursue both of the above about 7 years ago. Now the populations are way up, reported sightings and property damage (garbage, and livestock) are way up. Complaints went from under 100 a year to over 800 a year, in about 5 years. Anyway I am just trying to show that the population is not being challanged enough and is allowd to grow at an alrming rate.

Second, I went out this weekend with my three daughters and picked huckleberries. We were picking ina fairly popular place and came accross a couple with a child about 5-6 years old. My daughters ar 6, 9, 10, all very comfortable in the wilderness. Anyway, I had my 1911 strapped to my side with two extra mags on the otherside. This lady had the nerve to approach me, and tell me that I was crazy to carry a gun around my kids. I told her that when a bear jumps up and attacks here I will remember that. ANyway, we went about our business and picked a bundle came home and had HB milkshakes, a good reward for fighting the bees and biting flies. SO I wonder if this lady seen that story and thought about what she told me. I see it the other way around. I would never be in the wilderness and not be armed, ESPECIALLY with my kids there. ANyway thought I would pass this on.

Glad to be back,

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/20/1029114096907.html

Bear drags baby out of stroller
August 20 2002

Fallsburg, New York: A bear killed a five-month-old girl in New York state today after knocking her out of a stroller and trying to drag her into the woods, officials said.

The child was in the stroller in front of the porch of a bungalow with members of her family when the bear grabbed the stroller, said Mike Fraser, a state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman.

Isaac Abraham, a community leader from Williamsburg in Brooklyn, said people desperately tried to save the girl.

"People started chasing the bear, throwing rocks at it," he said.

The girl's father was able to get her away from the bear, and the animal ran away. A short time later, DEC officers and police shot the bear.

Ward Stone, the state's chief pathologist, said it was the first time he could remember a black bear killing a human.

"In all my many years, 34 summers, we've had them eat birdseed, get into trouble eating dog food in people's yards but black bears are just not noted for attacking humans," Stone said.

The attack happened about 120 kms northwest of New York City, in the heart of what is known as the Borscht Belt. Big hotels and bungalows attracted thousands of visitors each summer, many of them Jewish families from New York City. Scattered bungalow colonies still remain.

AP

JAG - I strongly agree with you for taking your 45 with you into the wilderness with your kids. I see protecting the family from the whatevers as a DUTY. I think you answered that ignorant woman about as well as it could be done.

As for the "bear attack." I wonder if the bear even saw it as an "attack?" To him, the infant propped out in the stroller probably looked like another handout. People who are forgetting wild animals like they are not wild animals are ALWAYS inviting trouble...either for themselves or the animal. Usually it's the animal who ends up paying the price for something people shouldn't have done. I learned this the hard way by befriending a roadrunner. Got him so tame he would eat out of my hands and followed me around like a dog. His reward for this friendship was a brave bird hunter shot him for the fun of it.

Animals as dangerous as bears should always maintain a very healthy fear of humans. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way in rural communities.

Sad story all around.

I have met many clueless people in the woods not only many miles from the nearess help but some very close to their own homes. I met more then one when I was 20 plus miles from the nearess road wondering why I was armed. Most of them have been matching way to much tv thinking all the critters are nice and well not hurt you. I think they expect someone else to help them if they need it. I am sure this bear just saw another helpless meal a lot like a fawn.

Every year, every New York State big game hunter who receives a deer tag also receives a bear tag. This has not changed in years.

Supposedly a fatal bear attack has not occurred in NY State for decades. Perhaps there are just not enough hunters hunting bears there. I know I have not hunted bear Upstate. Baiting is illegal, and there are few guides available. They have always been seen at garbage dumps and the automatic tag has been the main conservation and control method.

Now perhaps the bear population has increased recently for reasons not yet known.

I ran into a friend I havn't seen for years last evening and got to talking about hunting. He told me of the episode he had last year Elk Hunting in Colorado during smokepole season. He said he had cow in heat scent out and was calling around twighlight when a georgous Black Bear can down the trail he was going to have to use in 20 minutes or so to go back to camp. She got about 70 yards downwind of him and ran into his scent path, wheeled around and headed straight towards him. at about 40 yards he stood up and waved his arms, she kept the same trot straight at him. At about 30 or so he started yelling. When she kept coming at him he picked up his muzzleloader and ended up shooting her at inside 10 yards straight through the throat and dropped her. The sad part is he was fined $2000.00 for an "out-of-season" bear.

He said that was the first year they had seen bear in that area in over 20 years and they saw 6 different ones.
Mast was almost non-exstant last year as well and that might have played a part. Oh she was dry so it wasn't a protect the cubs reaction.

I also know a guy that had to drop a black bear in NY during early muzzleloader season. It came straight for him while he was yelling and waving his arms dropped it with a head shot at 13 feet. They can be aggressive, the NY DEC officer he reported it to said it happens more than we hear about here. Ohh, and Ward Stone is an Anti POS.

What Pecos said! - Dan

Fallsburg is NOT the woods. It's in a relatively well-populated part of the Catskill Mountains. The Orthodox and Hasidic Jews of NYC have built a lot of closed communities and colonies so they could enjoy a break from the heat and congestion of NYC without having to be around gentiles.

The bear likely had been run off by its mother and chased out of the dominant bear's territory. It was just doing what bears do, trying to lay on fat reserves for the winter.

George

According to the most recent report I have seen, the bear was very7 familiar with human food, and even had plastic bags and foosd rappers in its stomach when it was killed. This is another example of what happen when preditory animals loose there fear of humans. Fear is NOT a natural instinct to a large predator, it must be learned( and can be unlearned).Feeding bears and other animals, and then not hunting them in the same inviroment leads to bears with the idea they can take what they want to eat, what ever that may be. This is truly SAD.

1 1/2 year old male bears can be very aggressive. They are the bear equivalent of a teenage boy - full of energy and stupid! They often behave badly after being chased away by mother. Couple this with the fact the the bear was accustomed to being fed by humans (or at least human trash) and we have a situation of an aggressive bear who associates humans with food not fear.

I would not be surprised if a similar tragedy happens in the Pocono resort areas of Pennsylvania; where the bear population is growing and the resort types love to watch pooh bear eat thier birdseed and trash.

I feel terrible sorrow for the child and the family who lost their baby.

cwilson

We once had a lady from Vancouver come up to visit and ask if she could take one of the horses for a ride. My cousin told her to be careful as their are Grizzlies around.

She replied that she had nothing to fear from a Grizzly because she was a vegitarian and it would 'sense' that she was not a threat. My cousin replied that he was sure all of the local Deer would appreciate knowing that as they were always on the menu.

After a couple of moments of careful consideration all she could say was 'oh, yeah'.

amosgreg we should all learn from your friends mistake to shoot and shut up.

Here in Sweden, there are cases almost every year when a hunter out for moose has to kill a bear in self-defence. What usually happens is that the dog finds a bear, and when the bear gets tired of the barking dog and attacks it, the dogs run straight to his master with the pissed of bear at his heels. As long as this can be proved, the prosecution will drop the case (unless the bear is in season and there are bears left on the license in that county, when it is just a matter of registration). Bears here have killed no one for many years, but people often meet them. Last week, a 16-year-old girl met a bear, and she lay down and played dead. The bear sniffed all over her and then left her. She said that she was not really scared but that the bear did not smell nice...

By the way, I have to tell you this story, reported in a magazine here in Sweden. In Rumania, there was an old lady who came to hospital some years ago, terribly mutilated by a bear and just alive. The doctors worked very hard for days, trying to save here, and as a miracle she started to recover. When at last she was able to speak again, the doctor asked her what had happened. She said that one morning, a bear was eating apples in her garden, and she became so furious by this, that she took a heavy stick and tried to drive the bear away by hitting it, and the bear went for her. The doctor was aghast of course; did she not understand how dangerous it was to attack a bear with a stick? Oh yes, she did know that it really was not such a good idea, but still, she had been treating those bloody bears that way all her life...

Marterius;

Your post about the old lady hitting the bear with a stick reminded me of something similar here in the US.

One of our most popular national parks is Yellowstone. Older posters will remember that years ago, black bears used to roam the single east/west road through the park. The bears were so accustomed to mooching handouts from tourists that it was not uncommon to have to stop the car because there were so many in the roadway. Anyway, Park rangers one day came upon a family where wife and small children were standing together for a photo to be taken by the man of the family. When the rangers happened on this scene,the man was gently urging a full grown black over to the family group by pushing on the bear's rear. The bear reacted to each push with woofing and clicking of teeth. After getting the man away from the bear,he wanted to know why the rangers were so concerned. He had often gotten bears into family pictures and this black bear was no different from the rest!

This occurred probably 35 years ago or more. The blacks became so troublesome that they were deported to the park's interior and the rangers have followed that policy ever since.

I have seen film of tourists in Glacier National Park getting out of their cars to photograph grizzlies no more than 100 feet away. Most Americans nowadays have no appreciation for what a top of the food chain predator might do - and certainly no idea as to how fast trouble may develop with a bear that didn't read the Bunnyhuggers Guide to Our Friends in the Woods. (The vegetarian mentioned in earlier post probably carries the latest edition.)

P.S. The "harmlessness" of black bears is fiction. I am personally aware of 4 fatalities (two incidents) caused by black bears no more than 20 miles apart in Ontario (Can.)alone. Blacks are implicated in as many attacks as grizzlies and maybe more since they are more widespread. Our urban media do not report non fatal attacks and often not even fatal ones. When blacks wander into our suburban communities, the attitude of the media is amusement. They have the same attitude when an alligator gets into someone's pool. Of course,it's not their child or pet at risk from such forays. With the increasing restrictions on hunting (which used to reduce the gene pool of aggressive critters)we will have ever increasing numbers of incidents. (In California which abolished hunting for mountain lion, we have had a number of fatal attacks. When I was a boy,the mountain lion tried to avoid man. The aggressive ones that didn't got shot. Now we have exercise runners being warned about the hazard)

Gerry,
I love you story of the man pushing on the bear! In Sweden, most people are more scared of wolves then of bears, though I would much rather meet a wolf than a bear in the woods.

The bear season started last week in the northern half of Sweden (almost no bears in the south), and for each county, there is a quota to be filled. In particular in middle Sweden, the number of bears have increased recently, and the bears are less wary of people than they used to be, breaking into garbage tins and beekeepers shacks.

The really silly thing about this, is that the environmental agency here have tried to prohibit baiting for hunting bears, as baiting it makes the bear less wary of people, but it is still allowed to bait if you want to film the bears. So... a practise that diminish the number of bears not fearing people are prohibited but not a practise that just makes more bears learn the pleasures of being close to man... Am I confused, or is it somebody else...?

Marterius:

I agree with you that I would rather meet a wolf in the woods than a bear any day. I used to hunt black bear in Ontario, Canada in an area where the Fall season ran through the month of September. (A Spring season was abolished in Ontario a few years ago)In the following month of October I would hunt ruffed grouse.This,of course, involved considerable walking. Although contrary to law but on advice of local people, I always carried a few rifled slugs for the shotgun just in case I might run into a black that wanted to pick a quarrel.

The area where I hunted had a fairly large wolf population (Canadian timber wolf,usually grey but occasionally nearly black) Oddly, the wolves never would come near bait areas (for bear)yet when I would sometimes accompany the guide and help out and bait stands for him I often had the feeling that I had company as I carried bait pails to the stands. It was something of a cat and mouse game with me turning my head quickly and the wolves darting behind trees.The wolf's natural curiosity always got the better of him and they simply wanted to see what I was up to. I always enjoyed the game. (I simply never would shoot a wolf. This was not a farm or cattle raising area but real wilderness and I just liked knowing that the wolves were there. Listening to them at night was memorable.)

Your comments about bear baiting prohibitions were familiar. In my own state of NY,baiting is prohibited. Many US states prohibit it. There is an idea that there is a "shooting fish in the barrel" aspect to it. My own experience is that a bear coming to bait is even more alert than usual because he knows perfectly well that there is no "free lunch" in the woods.The sense of hearing is particularly acute.He is gone at the slightest rustle of noise.(I had a black hear the click of the safety.He didn't take off,surprisingly,but he definitely stiffened and wouldn't come in any closer)The shot is almost always in very poor light. He also doesn't linger. A few quick bites and he shuffles off, perhaps to return - or not.

BTW, when Ontario abolished spring bear hunting the anti-hunting activists said it was to protect cubs from being orphaned in the spring because their mama was shot! Since the season didn't begin until May and the cubs are out of the den and accompanying their mother everywheres by that time and hunters knew perfectly well to wait a bit to see if cubs showed up before attempting a shot, the claim was nonsense. Unfortunately it resonated with urban dwellers in Toronto so the entire sport hunting community and those who depended on them for a living, suffered.

I believe that it is rather common to have a few slugs for the shotgun here as well when hunting birds in bear-areas. It is not illegal to bring them with you, but they can only legally be used on boar or fallow-deer or when tracking an already wounded animal (moose, roe-deer etc).
Our city dwellers of Stockholm are not different from yours. The Minster for agriculture had the spring shooting of woodcock banned with the argument that "it ought to be quiet in the nature's nursery". We have a general election this September, so lets hope that she will be replaced...