A seven-year-old boy was taken to hospital after being attacked by a male black bear while playing in his backyard in upstate New York before the animal was shot dead and his body taken away for rabies testing.
The child was playing with a sibling outside the $1.8 million home in Westchester County, just north of Manhattan, when the animal broke into the yard and lunged at the child.
His parents, who were home at the time, ran out of the house and managed to distract the animal while calling first responders who arrived and saw the bear still in the yard.
The mother, a doctor, was bandaging her child as police shot and killed the animal before the boy was treated at the scene and taken to hospital.
“Our concern was that he didn’t back off,” North Castle Police Chief Peter Simonsen said of the animal.
A neighbor snapped a photo of the bear trudging through the backyard of the child’s home
The bear’s body will be tested for rabies after being removed by police
Police arrived at the $1.8 million home in leafy Westchester County within 10 minutes of being called
Police shot and killed the bear when he was unusually undeterred by the growing group of people
“At one point he moved forward, and when you have so many people I would think that normally an animal like that would retreat, but it didn’t,” he said. WABC.
“The normal reaction of bears is to run away, especially with increased activity and noise, they usually retreat.”
The attack took place shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday morning in leafy Hickory Kingdom Road.
It is believed the bear was a juvenile in Tuesday’s attack and his body was removed from the backyard by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which took him to the Westchester County Department of Health for rabies testing.
The boy’s injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, and Carlos Cano of the Armonk Fire Department said bear attacks were unknown in his 25 years of service.
“We’ve never experienced this before,” he added.
“Mommy was still in shock.”
In Westchester County, where the attack took place, the number of reported bear sightings or interactions with humans appears to be on the rise: from 9 in 2017 to 40 last year.
It is estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 bears live in New York State, and experts warn that they are most dangerous in the spring and summer.
“It’s scary, I think about it every day when I take my children and grandchildren out in the garden and with my pets,” local resident Janet Bates told the TV channel.
“The news is spreading like wildfire,” added Jack Kriskey, a retired contractor from nearby Greenwich.
The number of reported bear incidents in Westchester County has risen from nine in 2017 to 40 last year, and the North Castle Police Department has repeatedly posted warnings about bears on their website warning “don’t get too comfortable or complacent.”
“Please do not intentionally or unintentionally feed the bears, and please remove food sources that the bear may have access to,” they add.
It comes after a 10-year-old boy was attacked and injured by a bear while playing in his grandparents’ backyard in Morris, Connecticut, about 60 miles northeast of Tuesday’s attack.
Earlier this month, a Florida woman got the shock of her life when she was ambushed by a bear that showed up on her doorstep in Daytona Beach.
Gina Helsel, a Florida woman, came face to face with a bear after sending her dog to chase neighboring cats off her front porch earlier this month
Bear expert Mike Orlando of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called on people to keep their waste safe
Gina Helsel, 60, screamed in terror after going outside to call her dog in, only to see the bear trudge to her door and charge at the dog.
“I’m always looking for alligators, always looking for snakes and a big fear of coyotes, but bears I wasn’t really thinking about,” Helsel said.
“Keep your trash cans secure so you don’t bring the forest bears into your neighborhood,” cautioned Mike Orlando of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.