A bear walks into a hospital...

[Griff]

I wouldn't be leading bears around with food but they could have darted the bugger.



Bear killed, tested for rabies
Pa. woman was mauled last week
BY GREG ERBSTOESSER
Press & Sun-Bulletin

GREAT BEND TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A wild black bear that may have mauled a Dubois Street woman last week will be tested for rabies, but results won't be known for another day or two.

Officials will test a 100-pound male bear captured Sunday on the property where 43-year-old Annette Senior was attacked June 8, Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Tim Conway said Monday.

Game officials have been unable to determine conclusively that the bear killed Sunday is the same one that mauled Senior, but decided to destroy and test the bear because of the nature of the attack, the first reported in Pennsylvania this year.

"We acted on the side of caution," Conway said.

Senior has begun receiving a series of rabies shots as a precaution, state Health Department spokeswoman Jessica Seiders said. Senior was bitten, clawed and scratched on the head, arms and chest. She was rushed to Community Medical Center, Scranton, where she was admitted last Tuesday. The hospital would not say whether she remains a patient.

After the attack, a bear trap fabricated from a metal culvert was set up on the Senior property.

Senior was attacked outside her home after she let her dog out on a wire run before retiring for the night. Game officials said the bear chased the dog, which ran back toward Senior. The dog veered off but the bear continued, attacking Senior and then taking off.

The Seniors were unavailable Monday for comment.

Susquehanna County and northeastern Pennsylvania as well as Broome and Tioga counties are considered prime habitat for black bears. Game officials say people living near wooded areas can reduce the chance of bear attacks by removing bird feeders from yards, storing garbage in covered trash barrels and putting ammonia-soaked rags inside barrels to mask food odors.