Florida woman attacked by bear while walking dog says she's 'lucky to be alive'
A Florida woman was attacked by a bear while walking her dog last week, officials said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said its officers and the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office got a call from a woman who said she had been attacked by a black bear at about 9 p.m. Thursday in DeBary, about 26 miles north of Orlando.
When officers arrived, the woman was treated on the scene for non-life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from the commission.
Officers found a female bear who had yearlings in a tree.
"FWC bear biologists darted the adult bear in the tree and humanely killed it per the FWC policy to protect public safety," the commission said in its statement. "The three 100-pound yearlings are old enough to survive on their own and so no attempt was made to capture them."
The woman, who identified herself as Aydee, told NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando that she was chased and tackled by the bear just as she was stepping back onto her driveway after the walk.
"And then the dog start pulling and I let it go and then I took off running that way, and she was running behind me and she grabbed me by my shoulders and I fell to the ground," Aydee told the station.
Body camera video released by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office showed the woman, surrounded by a group of people, after the attack. She told deputies that her face and her back were hurting. She added that her black lab had run away. The woman’s dog was found uninjured.
“The worst (experience) of my life ... I never experienced this before. Like, you go through things in life but this is the worst. No. 1, I would say,” Aydee said. “I feel lucky to be alive.”
She suffered a scratch on her face and scratches on her back.
A shaken 911 caller relayed to a dispatcher that the woman was hurt on "her hand, and her face, and her back.
"So she was attacked, actually," the caller said. "That bear was not afraid of humans."
