Anyone know more about this? This was emailed to me so I don't have a link. Everyone send a little prayer, ok?

6-Year-Old Girl Dies in Tenn. Bear Attack
From Associated Press
April 13, 2006 10:25 PM EDT
BENTON, Tenn. - A bear attacked a family at a camp site in Cherokee National Forest on Thursday, killing a 6-year-old girl and injuring her 2-year-old brother and mother, authorities said.

The attack took place at a pool of water below Benton Falls on Chilhowee Mountain, said Dan Hicks, spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which is coordinating a search for the black bear.

Hicks said several witnesses described the bear picking up the boy with its mouth while the mother and other visitors tried to beat it off with sticks and rocks. At some point the mother was injured in the attack.

During the attack on the boy, Hicks said the girl ran away from the scene and was found dead a short time later with the bear nearby. A park ranger fired at least one gunshot at the bear before it ran away.

The mother and her son were transported by helicopter to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, where both were being treated for wounds consistent with a bear attack, Hicks said.
from Associated Press

All reports (177 googled) seem to be the same AP story. Maybe some more from locals forthcoming

There's a video link in the Yahoo news (sorry it's a java thing and I cant post the link)

Only new thing they said was that the bear will be put down when it's found. It also sounds like it was shot and hit by the ranger.

Yep another one of the non dangerous black bears.

Sure sounds like a preatory blk bear attack to me.

I betting if the mother would have been armed and known how to shoot the kid would have still be alive. Even if she would have had just a LITTLE .38.

The Washington Post is running an updated AP version
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...AR2006041302305.html

Here is a Tenn. paper with additional information
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_83765.asp

The timing is interesting. Black Bears are known to prey on deer fawn. I can only imagine that this bear is recently out of the den and accustomed to doing that.

Probably a juvenile.

I hate hearing about things like this...

OTOH, maybe those folks in the northeast that protest the bear hunts should read it...

I think there needs to be an AR sponsored hunt for the good of the citizens in the general area of the attack.

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
I hate hearing about things like this...

OTOH, maybe those folks in the northeast that protest the bear hunts should read it...

I am sure the libs would blame the kids on provoking the bear....

Libs, always use the slogan " its for the children" and then in instances like this, they blame the kids, for provoking the bear to attack them....

I am sure the jerks at PETA are probably throwing an office party over the incident....that is about their "sick mentality" speed....

Now folks know how we feel on the west coast, and all the animal rights activists praising the existance of Cougars....

Last sunday at a town nearby ( 15 miles) a cougar attacked a person, rural residental area... the report on by the Police Dept is that the cougar or cougars have had multiple sighting reported day and night... the animal or animals seen to have no fear of humans ( I am sure some " save the whales" crowd has probably been feeding them so they can watch them out their picture window, drinking coffee and reveling in "mother nature")

Cougar tracks have also been found at the local park, on the baseball diamonds that the kids play little league on....

Idiots like the "grizzly man" deserve to wind up as Bear Crap in the woods... 6 yr old little girls do not....

My family's prayers go out to their family....I have family in the Chattanooga area....hopefully it was well into the Smokies there, against the NC border.....

Chalk up another victory for the PETA crowd....

seafire

I concure with ya seafire. I can't even let my little grandkids play alone in my own backyard here in the Siskiyou Mountains because of possible and likely lion attacks!

When I bought the place 35 years ago that problem did not exist because lion hunters kept the animals in check. Now, when I complain to F & G they say: "Well, you know you moved into their territory, so you just have to live with it." B.S. it was "my territory," and the greenies caused the problem by banning hunting.

It's a real shame, and admittedly I hate to say so, but what it'll take is a few children to be attacked before the public will re-instate hunting.

Bear Caught in Tenn., Forest Service Says

By ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A black bear was caught in a forest recreation area Sunday and was being sent to a veterinary school to determine if it was the same animal that attacked a family, killing a 6-year-old girl.

Authorities found a bear in the same trap where they detected paw prints on Saturday in the remote Cherokee National Forest Chilhowee Recreation Area, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Sharon Moore said.

The bear, which was captured near the site of the attack, looked to be the same weight as the 350- to 400-pound bear that attacked a mother and her two children on a trail in the recreation area on Thursday, she said.

"We're very hopeful this is the bear," Moore said. "It's basically the same size bear. There's truly not that many bears in the 5,000 acres we have closed off."

Moore said authorities planned to euthanize the bear on Sunday and send its body to the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville to determine whether it was the one that had attacked the family.

Animal experts plan to compare the bear with hairs that were shed during the attack, said Bob Miller, a spokesman for Cherokee National Forest and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They also will look for gunshot wounds since the bear that attacked the family was shot.

A bear attacked and killed Elora Petrasek Thursday afternoon as she and her family were leaving a waterfall pool on a rugged, 1,800-foot-high mountaintop, about 10 miles from the nearest highway.

The bear bit the girl's 2-year-old brother, Luke Cenkus, on his head and punctured his skull, officials said. Their mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, tried to fend off the bear with rocks and sticks but the bear attacked her, dragging her yards off the trail.

Her 6-year-old daughter apparently ran away and almost an hour passed before a rescuer found her body about 100 yards off the trail with the bear. The man said he shot twice at the bear with a pistol before it ran away.

Luke Cenkus was in fair condition and their mother remained in critical condition, hospital officials said Sunday. Doctors said they expected both to recover.

The family from Clyde, Ohio had stopped at the forest recreation area Thursday while they were in the area to visit Susan Cenkus' eldest son, a music student at Lee University in Cleveland, near Chattanooga.

And now an attack by a mountain lion in CO. A 7 year old was injured in the attack .The rest of the group of hikers drove it off with rocks !

So far it sounds like the bear attack was unprovoked. Depending on whether it was a female with cubs. Which hasn't been addressed that I've heard or read.

Another prime reason for everyone to pack a .44 mag. Idiot that shot the bear did so with a .380 for crying out loud. Guess it was better than nothing, as it did scare the bear away from him. I wouldn't bet much on any bullet wounds to the bear though. Minor skin marks. I'd like to see the hide up close and personal IF this is the bear.

Amaze's me people outlaw hunting, build house's and trails thru the woods where the animals live and hunt. Then cry loud and long when one of them attacks like this cat. Lot's of cat's up in that area.

Too bad it's usually the little kids that get chewed up though. Should be a way to teach the cats, bear etc to only attack the anti's.

George

Attacks like this are rare but only have to happen once. Anyone who goes into bear country without a firearm is foolish in my opinion. Bears, black or brown are dangerous animals and should be respected as such. I know most bears want no part of humans but it is the exceptional bear one needs to worry about. meet that bear and you had best be prepared to repel boarders.

I understand that there was a fatal black bear attack in Tennessee in 2000. I hunted black bears in Canada for years and heard many stories. I do know that black bears are supposed to have killed more people than grizzlies and polar bears combined. Sure, I know it's because we see more blacks than any other bear - but still it does say something. Hollywood cartoon characters give a terrible impression about animals like bears, hippos and elephants. Those characters not only impress small ones but also adults - and that's where the trouble develops. I'm with the guys who posted about having a weapon in bear country. I used to hunt ruffed grouse in Ontario in October. Black bear season was closed (as of September 30) I was alone for ruffed grouse hunting - and always carried several 12 ga. slugs in my pocket. It was illegal under Ontario law at the time and if any conservation officer had met me and ordered me to empty my pockets, I would have been in trouble. Nonetheless, I always carried those slugs! (it was on the same theory as my NY City police officers used to operate about shooting a felon -and someone wants to say later "You had no right to shoot him". The old cop expression was " Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6". It's too bad that the idea of carrying a firearm where meat eating animals roam is no longer in favor in this country. A small boy is dead who might have been saved if a 22 revolver had been fired in the air.

The bear wildlife rangers believe attacked an Ohio family, killing a six-year-old girl is now at the University of Tennessee for testing. It was captured Sunday and put to sleep.

The tests have already confirmed that the bear does not have rabies, a good thing for the victims and veterinarians, but other tests are planned.

Doctor Robert Donnell from UT's College of Veterinary Medicine has done many necropsies, but this one is different. He is trying to find out why a bear would violently attack a family.

"I did not go into veterinary biopathology hoping to do this type of situation," says Donnell.

Finding the evidence that would prove this is the bear will be difficult. The process began Monday morning with X-rays. It will also involve testing tissue, looking for human DNA, and testing the animal's hairs.

Also, wildlife officials say they shot the bear right after the attack. Finding a fresh bullet wound during the necropsy would mean they likely have the right animal.

There were witnesses to the attack, so investigators did have some descriptive information to go on when searching for the bear.

Dan Hicks, the public information officer for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA)says, "It was a very healthy, slick-looking bear. It was a male bear."

As for why the animal acted in such an uncharacteristic manner, there are still a lot of questions.

"We are leaning towards a predatory attack at this time. Until we can find another reason," explains Hicks.

The testing process could take more than a month, time that won't be easy for Dr. Donnell.

"When your profession is dedicated to the well-being of animals, it seems to work both ways as far as the type of information we are looking for," says Donnell. "It's a little bit disturbing."

TWRA officials say that almost a dozen people were around the attack site when it happened. Two kids were running down the path and said they saw the bear. Officials are looking for any information about this incident to find out if the kids somehow provoked the animal.

quote:

Originally posted by JBD:
Attacks like this are rare but only have to happen once. Anyone who goes into bear country without a firearm is foolish in my opinion. Bears, black or brown are dangerous animals and should be respected as such. I know most bears want no part of humans but it is the exceptional bear one needs to worry about. meet that bear and you had best be prepared to repel boarders.

Totally agree w/ that statement. For all those that think having a pistol fo rSD against a marauding bear is foolish, think how those parents felt when they were fighting off that bear w/ sticks & stones. A well placed shot from even a properly loaded .357mag or .45acp woould have probably saved that little girls life.

mete, what about the lion attack in CO. Haven't heard anything about that.

The bear and cat stories can be found on the ESPN website . The cat story was in Boulder county. An 80 lb female attacked a 7 year old ,others in the group drove it off with rocks. The cat was later killed. This happened just 50 yds from a parking lot !

Wild animals should be treated with caution and respect always, no matter which attitude they appear to have ....

My deepest condolences for that little girl´s family, let her rest in peace ...