The number of bear sightings reported to Sault Ste. Marie Police Service this spring are comparable to 2008.
Jun 12, 2009
SOURCE: The Sault Star
Coniston resident Krissy Harvey took her dog Ranger outside early Wednesday and ended up needing 72 staples in her right leg after a run in with a bear.
"It was big and black. It knocked me down," said the 30-year-old.
Harvey's Rottweiler woke her up at about 1:45 a. m. wanting to go outside. She took him out to the driveway of her family's Michael Street home and decided to have a cigarette.
"Ranger took off to the other side of the truck," she said. "I walked over to the back of the truck. That's when it got me."
Once Harvey was on the ground, the dog went after the bear and the animal took off.
Harvey went inside and woke up her partner Ryan Clarke.
"She came up saying that something bit her," he said.
They went to the bathroom and looked at the four gashes in her leg.
"She was bleeding all over the floor," Clarke said.
He called 911 and police and paramedics showed up. Harvey was taken to St. Joseph's Health Centre, where her leg was stapled.
"They need to bring back the spring bear hunt," Harvey said. "They need to set more traps."
It's not the first time Harvey, a mother of five, has seen a bear in her neighbourhood.
"We've called the MNR so many times," she said, adding she worries about her children.
"The bears are getting braver."
