|
Bear Picks On The Wrong Man
Bears, why do they hate us?John Hirsch went toe-to-claw with a black bear â and won. Hirsch had only a 3 1/2-inch knife blade when he came across the bear in his backyard in Williams Lake, about 190 miles northeast of Vancouver. "He came out of nowhere," said Hirsch, 61, an avid hunter and outdoorsman. "I can remember thinking that heâs not stopping â heâs coming," said Hirsch. "I just didnât feel I had any place to go." He was attacked Oct. 29 while checking on the 15 turkeys he and his wife, Sharon, raise on their spread. As the bear began to circle him, Hirsch faced it like a wrestler in a ring. "It was like a knife fight that youâd see in an old-time Western," he said. The bear swatted out at him, but each time it lunged, he managed to stab it. "I couldnât tell you if the fight lasted three seconds or three minutes," Hirsch said. Three stabs to the bearâs chest and one to its neck finally did the bruin in. Donât mess with Grandpa Hirsch. It stood about 5 foot 7 inches to Hirschâs 5 feet 9 inches and weighed 200 pounds, according to conservation officers who inspected it. "I can say it sure looked smaller the next morning than it did during the fight," said Hirsch. The bear was in poor shape, suffering from a severed tongue and broken jaw, the conservation officer said. Its stomach was empty and the bear had little fat on it. Hungry and wounded = mean. Hirsch, a retired electrical foreman at B.C. Hydro, suffered a scratch to the top of his head and scratches to his back â and a shredded T-shirt. PETA will be filing charges, no doubt. Posted by: Steve 2003-11-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21526 |