Dog Fights Bear To Save Owner
This sounds like something out of an adventure story but it came straight from CTV.ca!
Ontario man says dog saved him from bear attack
CTV.ca News Staff
An Ontario man who killed a 200-pound black bear with a hunting knife says his faithful dog saved his life — twice.
Tom Tilley, 55, of Waterloo, Ont., had been portaging last Thursday in northern Ontario near Wawa with his five-year old American Staffordshire, Sam.
He said they were walking toward the beginning of the portage to retrieve the canoe when he heard Sam start to growl.
“And I turned behind me and 20 feet behind me there was this black bear coming up the trail, sneaking up behind me,” he said.
“If Sam hadn’t growled, I may not have known until it was too late.”
Tilley’s first instinct was to try and make lots of noise and make himself appear bigger. He also started to slowly walk backwards, but nothing seemed to be scaring off the bear.
Suddenly, the bear took off down the portage path, ran through the brush and came onto the portage trail behind Tilley — cutting off his escape route.
“At that point I kind of realized I might be in a bit of trouble.”
“The bear seemed to me to be acting aggressive. I’m not a big guy and I could very well easily be prey.”
At that point, his dog Sam placed himself perpendicular to the bear, across the path. The bear dug its teeth into the dog’s back, and Tilley said he became enraged.
“I love my dog very much, and my first thought was, ‘You’re not going to kill my dog’.”
“The momentary distraction that Sam provided to take the bear’s attention away from me gave me the opportunity to run behind the bear, straddle its back and begin to stab it.
“I kept stabbing until it was dead.”
He said Sam saved his life twice: “First by alerting me to the bear’s presence coming up behind me and then again by placing himself between me and the bear.”
After making sure the animal was dead, Tilley noticed he had suffered a wound to his hand and Sam had two puncture wounds. Tilley paddled for about an hour before he came across a couple of Americans who had a satellite phone.
