Homeowner relives horror attack by mama black bear who knocked her to the ground and started biting her head in her own back yard: ‘I thought she was going to scalp me’

A homeowner has described her horror after she was attacked by a mother bear that started biting her head in her Pennsylvania backyard.

Lee Ann Galante thought the black bear was going to scalp her Tuesday night during a vicious mauling in the backyard of her Butler Township home.

The 55-year-old took her Pomeranian Smokie for a walk outside. She heard a commotion and knew the dog was in danger.

Galante then saw the silhouette of three bear cubs in a neighbor’s tree before their angry mother appeared on the scene.

“I just see this big bear jump over the fence, and there’s Smokie. So I start yelling, “Smokie, Smokie,” she told the local TV news station.

The 55-year-old was walking her dog Smokie outside. She heard a commotion and knew the Pomeranian was in danger

Galante said the bear then lunged at her, knocking her to the ground.

“She got behind me and pushed me down, and my face fell right into our cement,” Galante said in an emotional interview from her hospital bed, with cuts on her nose and just above her lip.

“Then she grabbed me by the back of my head and pulled so hard I thought I was going to be scalped,” she added.

Galante said the bear kept shifting her focus from her to her 5-pound Pomeranian and her arm was bitten during the attack.

“She was very, very forceful and very, very angry,” Galante told CBS News.

Galante and Smokie managed to return to their home from a back deck, where they crawled to a telephone and called 911.

Galante was hospitalized and received dozens of surgical staples in the back of her head.

‘She has quite a few stab wounds on the back of her neck, on her arm itself and quite large tears and cuts on her scalp. And she also has several broken bones in her nose and face,” said AHN trauma surgeon Dr. Jennifer Chen.

The mother bear and her three cubs were located in a tree in the area after the attack.

One of the bears in a tree after the attack. The mother bear continued to be aggressive and was euthanized by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The cubs have been sedated and are expected to be released at an unknown location

The mother bear continued to be aggressive and was euthanized by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The cubs have been sedated and are expected to be released at an unknown location.

One of her neighbors, Michael Vero, said it was “unnerving to hear her screaming” during the attack. He noted that bears had been in the area for a few weeks and he was concerned for the safety of his children.

‘I was tense at the time; Now that they’re out of here, I feel a little better,” he said.

The Game Commission said the bear was likely protective of her cubs and was hungry.