“You feel like a rag doll and there’s nothing you can do,” she says, adding, “I remember being thrown around.”

“You feel like a rag doll and there’s nothing you can do,” Vanessa Chaput said, adding, “I remember being thrown around.”

A brave mom who was attacked by a grizzly bear while jogging said her 2-year-old daughter was her inspiration to survive.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Vanessa Chaput, 24, of Yukon, Canada, told TODAY.com.

On June 30, Chaput was jogging through a paved trail in between Haines Junction and Pine Lake Campground in Ontario, Canada, with her German shepherd, Luna. Chaput said she is familiar with the trail, which runs alongside a highway and is near residential homes. It was 10:30 p.m, but the sun had recently set, so when Chaput rounded a corner, she clearly saw the trouble ahead.

Chaput was face-to-face with three bears.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    32·
    3 months ago

    I don’t like the fact that they killed bears they found in the area afterwards. She admitted she was in a bad place to be, and her dog might have triggered the initial attack (but did a good boy and helped scare off more). So bears that were being bears died because of this. I started reading this as a happy story of survival, but now I’m just glad she managed to live and the rest sucks.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      3 months ago

      Had a black bear wander in my dog door a few years back. The state biologist concerned with bears ordered it euthanized. I could tell she was heartbroken, but that’s procedure in such a case.

      The contractor who works for the state set a trap in my yard for a week. Didn’t get him! Haven’t had a bear in the hood since.

      • Rhaedas@fedia.io
        6·
        3 months ago

        I do get the reasoning behind such a policy to prevent an animal exposed to behavior from repeating it, but it sucks so much death came from a simple mistake. Especially since the bears weren’t even straying outside their normal area and just doing what you’d expect them to do.

      • tamal3@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 months ago

        Golly, bears where i live get into houses and trash all the time. To my knowledge none have been killed for it, it’s just accepted that people need to lock up their houses.

        A bear also recently opened my car door, ate what it could find, and left with no damage to the car (other than a next level quantity of mud).

        The differences in policies between cities are interesting.

  • Zannsolo@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 months ago

    Sounds like the dog scared and probably chased the smaller threats off and left her to get mauled by the big guy. I’m kinda surprised it didn’t stay closer to the lady and scuffle with the big boy.

  • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 months ago

    Where did this happen, and what kind of bears?? Is it just me or is this article lacking…

    Where is Yukon Canada? And is Ontario Canada inside it? Or was she visiting from our of town? This Grizzly attack was black bears?

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 months ago

    Even a bear’s gotta understand that when it fucks with a mama near her babies, it’s fucking game time.

  • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 months ago

    It’s a bad-ass (though frightening at the time) story you can tell for the rest of your life. “I survived a grizzly bear attack.”

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
      9·
      3 months ago

      Except if you are like Allena Hansen who, as she was being attacked, did not think about her family or whether she led a good life. Instead she worried about whether her insurance would pay for rehab.