Rocky, a 700lb (317kg) bear, bit Stephan Miller, 39, in the neck at a centre where wild animals are trained for film and TV productions.
But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear, who had been touted as one of the “best trained” in showbusiness.
Two other trainers subdued Rocky with pepper spray and were unhurt.
I’m no bear expert, but when I was handling dogs, I didn’t “play wrestle” with the Rottie or the Kom.
The bear is not known to have been involved in any previous incidents. The victim’s brother, Randy, told news agency The Associated Press the bite occurred during “playful” wrestling behaviour by a “loving, affectionate, friendly, safe bear”.
Because smart dog handlers know that the lack of a “previous incident” means jack when you’re dealing with something that outweighs you, and has bigger teeth.
Poetic justice! This is what SHOULD happen to all of you rightards who think you can enslave animals and eat meat like it’s your right.
Keep an eye on those schnauzers, KKKate. They’re going to get you next.
Ta.
The Scold
—
Need advice? Send your question to:
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Bears are wild animals and can never really be tamed. Look at Knut the polar bear cub in Berlin – he was handraised from birth and now that he’s fully grown, not even his surrogate daddy is safe with him.
personally i cried like a 5 year old during Bambi(gee..i WAS 5 yrs old) so Walt’s okay in my books….
where was i ?..oh yes…..i run a train thru burns bog every night…deer…beaver…coyote…owls…o’possum rats mice ducks the odd blue heron…killdeers…all of them crossing the track and no matter the speed or tonnage i always set big air and slow down or stop before i run them over.
you can thank walt d’Isgny for that.
“But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear”
How about “instinct” and a couple hundred thousand years of biting everything.
“But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear”
How about “tiresome human”?
“But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear”
How about a tasty meal?
Dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years. Bears haven’t. Only a total fool is surprised when a bear acts like a bear.
“That bear didn’t go crazy, that bear went BEAR.”
(Apologies to Chris Rock).
i remember the story of the guy who kept lots of cats. one day he died, at home.
the cats ate him.
then they died when the “food” ran out.
Two words for all you Hollywood geniuses:
Computer animation.
Its a carnivore as big as a COW. Even if its only playing it could make a mistake and bite the nice little human a bit too hard, eh? Imagine if it got cranky!
All that for a movie that nobody is going to see.
“what provoked the bear”
One story mentioned he had previously appeared in a Will Farrell movie. There is only so much a creature can take.
BTW, Kate, thanks for that comment about previous behaviour not meaning anything; i wish all dog owners knew this or at least acted like it.
I’m surprised the MSM hasn’t blamed PMSH for the mauling yet. To the MSM, the mauling fits in nicely with hidden agendas, preying on the poor, forgery, etc. *S*
People who have never acquainted themselves with animals have no respect for animals. Animals do not think like people and they have no human traits. In real life dogs do not wear tutu’s and booties, bears ‘play’ by bashing each other around – that would mean slapping the death out of a human because we are so much smaller and less powerful. Domesticated animals respect humans but, if alienated from others of their own kind, adopt humans as part of their pack or flock.
That bear was probably just ‘playing’. A cat bites people but they are small – bears take a lot bigger bite. There are no “smoky bears” ‘tamed ‘or wild. People are so self centered that they think if they ‘love’ a wild animal enough, that animal will change it’s ways. Stupidity and sterile urban living are to blame. More PC fairy-tales = more ‘animal kill’.
The worst part is that now they’ll likely kill the bear.
“Stupid Human” is the problem, not the bear.
Sad.
Don’t mess with any animal, especially large ones, around full moons.
Look at what the elephant did to the party in India last weekend. Only killed 3 people.
(There! That otto bring out the medical experts with their moon charts.)
I have an 8lb dog, and when we play rough, sometimes I get bit. C’est la vie. If I had a brother growing up, and we played, I might have got a black eye. Shit happens. Move on.
RG
i ‘member when i was firing for this old futzer we were running the fraser canyon…i reckon the most dangerous track in the old Dominion…look at some pitchers of THAT run whether cpr or cnr and tell me you’re not within 1 second of oblivion at any given moment…look down in that river and count the wrecks..count the locomotives smashed and dashed on the them boulders below while that raging torrent foams and crashes and bashes it’s way to the salt chuck…
where was i ?..oh yes!
so the old hoghead let me know real soon that he didn’t mind me running over any siwash(indians) on the run but he’d be right pissed if i ran over a deer…same thing running south to seattle out of white rock…there’s a hill with a park in the middle of it…track 12 ft wide and garanite walls up 50 feet for a mile …it’s straight uphill 8th notch flat out for glory but if you saw a little deer trapped on the tracks we’d ring the bell blow the whistle and all silently pray…AND slow down to give her a chance..
thanks be to walt d’Isgny.(which is a pretty rhyme)
This story makes me think of Grizzly Man.
The worst part is that now they’ll likely kill the bear.
Yeah, that’s always the most idiotic part of these stories. The first thing they do when some hiker gets attacked while passing through some cougar or wolf’s territory is send out the trackers to kill it – or whatever animal comes to hand first. The only consequence of this is to comfort the poor, frightened humans and the outraged family of the injured or deceased. “There – we made the monster go away.” Never mind that this logic – or lack of it – has nothing to do with the behaviour of wild animals.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for your average greenie, but we really do act like clueless assholes when it comes to nature, sometimes.
“But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear”
By funny coincidence, I just finished watching the uncut version of “Dances with Wolves” on cable TV. Same skewed utopian eco-warrior thinking depicted the wolf as just a big friendly puppy dog. No reference to his natural wild carnivore nature, nor wolves’ propensity to attack sheep and other livestock.
What part of ‘Godless Killing Machine’ didn’t these guys understand?
If I was the bear I would have killed that little man who kept teasing and hitting me day after day after day. In human life, if someone slapped and hit you like the man did
the bear the man would be sued harrassed and had his ass sued off.
Why is anyone blaming the bear, he was harrassed beyond endurance.
Hey, my better half is a locomotive engineer as well. The problem here is elk and deer sheltering in the draws during winter storms. He does the same thing. He, in fact, moved boards because the nearest terminal is a virtual biosphere of grain leavings, rodents, birds, raccoons, fox etc. It was tough on the nerves picking one’s way out of the yard in those conditions trailing 100 cars and several thousand ton. On the other hand, we buy 50 pound bags of corn for the local deer in our area. We thought they’d stay away from the bird feeders but they instead now munch on both.
Back on topic, the bear did what bears do: Bite. I sincerely hope they don’t put it down. It’s a grizzley for pete’s sake. If that’s California we may be okay. Tough for their politicians to make a decision with all the moonbats constantly on the alert for action.
This didn’t happen by accident. The grizzly must have heard about all the drowning polar bears, killed due to thoughtless humans despoiling the environment. Watch out. You could be next!!
weeeeell, at least the bear didn’t pull a gun and shoot the fool!!!!
It’s amazing how some people can say “my dog would never bite” or “my dog would never run away”, hogwash, they can, they would and they do, they’re animals and never has no meaning to them. They are creatures of instinct.
When wild animals in captivity attack humans it’s hardly the fault of the animal unless we are to assume they’re the top of the evolutionary scale. Ditto when we stray into their domain.
There is a lot of cruelty involved in the training of wild animals for circus shows and the like. It’s about time we stopped supporting such nonsense.
I think most trainers of animals know the risk they take and are prepared to deal with it. Just ask Sigfried or Roy (can’t recall) and the big Vegas pussycats. It is the know it all idiots who go out to pet the creatures, have them eat out of their hands or try to live with them to prove that they are all God’s creatures. The Darwin award was meant for those but I also agree with another commentor that the animal will likely end up in front of a fireplace for acting like ahhh, well a bear.
nice to hesr iowavette..how do you feel though about kate deeming walt d’Isgny as the adolf eichmann of the cartoon age ?
this is simply wrong.
nice to hesr iowavette..how do you feel though about kate deeming walt d’Isgny as the adolf eichmann of the cartoon age ?
this is simply wrong.
Gotta be some mistake. All those childhood movies I watched had fellas making pets out of cougars and bears.
I believe that scorpions too would make excellent household pets.
Does your bear bite?
Chomp
Zat is not my bear!
Jema54 wrote: “People are so self centered that they think if they ‘love’ a wild animal enough, that animal will change it’s ways.”
This is probably at the heart of most cases of domestic violence in this country.
Now John Begley don’t go ganging up on Kate about Walt Disney – she partially right and you know it. You’re just soft on Disney cause you love wildlife and he got you into it – made you see it.
Back in the very early ’50s I read ET Seaton “Wild Animals I have Known” and Chas GD Roberts “Anatomy of a Grizzly” – both anthropomorphic as hell – and those books imprinted on me the way Disney seems to have on you.
I think humans are hard-wired to try and ‘connect’ with other species.
Domesticating dogs was probably one of the biggest advantages early humans gave themselves (Google: pariah dogs) and probably happened much earier than we realize.
Today’s humans love their pets because, unlike them, their pets take life as it comes, live unconditionally and don’t tear themselves up with angst.
Love the train stuff, Mr. Begely. Keep it coming.
Chairs,
mm
Toronto
“The worst part is that now they’ll likely kill the bear”
Maybe they could just sell him to Sigfried and Roy. I understand they are looking of a new animal act.
“Because smart dog handlers know that the lack of a “previous incident” means jack when you’re dealing with something that outweighs you, and has bigger teeth.”
This is so bang on Kate. This incident brings to mind the self appointed Grizzle expert who got himself and girlfriend eaten while on location in an Alaska wildlife preserve. He couldn’t seem to clue in that the bears were well fed during the salmon runs and he would be more difficult to catch. He was left alone as long as there were salmon.
A true bear expert, Jack Boudreau lived in Northern BC. One of his books: “Grizzle Bear Mountain” is a classic. It is a collection of short stories on bear hunting and bear encounters.
I would believe his advice before any Science Grad Wildlife authority because it comes from experienced observation.
I bet Rocky the Bear will lose whatever movie role he was lined up for to Bart the Bear, if poor Bart was still alive. I bet Bart never stepped out of line.
Bart starred in “The Bear” “The Clan of the Cave Bear”, “The Edge” and ate Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall”.
Sadly he was typecast as befalls all character actors.
The dogs don’t bite and the bees don’t sting on Big rock Candy Mountain y’all.
The dogs don’t bite and the bees don’t sting on Big Rock Candy Mountain y’all.
Its the same with all animals; they are just animals. Yes even the big cats and little ones. If the animal is small, most people write aggression off as funny. Dumb A.
Funnily enough, I regulary play a little rough with a 140+ lb dog and both of us enjoy it.
This is a dog that could ( were it so inclined) certainly rip my throat out in one chomp, or break an arm with one bite. But you know, I know that dog, and it knows me, and dogs “get” play time.
They get children too and put up with shit that would get an adult human or another dog a strong nip of annoyance.
So let’s not exaggerate either.
You can get away doing stuff with a dog that you be a moron to do with a less domesticated animal. Like a cat.
How can any rational person blame a bear for being a bear? Knut is called a fish murderer by a ridiculous newspaper for not finishing his lunch. Leftards.
“This is what SHOULD happen to all of you rightards..”
– the scold
A symptom of low intelligence levels amongst the left is a complete and utter absence of imagination, let alone minting their own insults. And people actually ask this imbecile for advice?
My wife said “maybe the bear just couldn’t take doing another Will Ferrell movie!” Oh no…
The Bear was deprived as a cub and grew up in the midst of affluence that he was not allowed to share in. All his life he endured the painful specter of speciesism at the hands of his supposedly superior human “handlers”. He doubtless heard stories of his polar bear cousins suffering at the hands of man-made global warming. Finally, he cracked.
Gunney99, the bear only ate the guy. Because the guy’s girlfriend was intelligent enough to get outta Dodge before the fish ran out.
As for the bear trainer, well, that’s why they get paid the big bucks right? Everyone gets bitten at work once in a while. Sometimes figurative, sometimes literal.
Liz J, I would be willing to go out on a limb here and say that animals that are being trained to interact with people (read TV/movie work) aren’t trained with whips and chairs anymore. Elsewise they would turn on the first unarmed pink ape they saw and exact their revenge. Studios take a dim view of the “big draw star” being eaten by the trained support cast. 🙂
Rick McGinnis,
I don’t know about animals in captivity, but for animals in the wild, killing those that kill humans is an appropriate response. If you don’t, the animal in question (bear, cougar or wolf) isn’t afraid of humans, they view humans as food, and that means more human deaths. I’m not about to put my rural brethren in that sort of circumstance.
If you go hiking in bear country, yes you can die by bear. But bears will also go hiking amongst humans. We want the bears (and so forth) to be afraid of us, not to develop a taste for us.
john begley at April 24, 2008 4:11 PM, keep those type of thoughts to yourself, please (re:Indians), it’s uncalled for.
Speaking of Siegfried and Roy, when they had their
“accident”, same year Hamilton Ticats had one win. Best sports line ever, “Outside of Siegfried and Roy, only Hamilton had a worse year with their Tiger cats.”
corral the bears’
corral the liberals
bears’ eat anything
there is no talkin to them
“..john begley at April 24, 2008 4:11 PM, keep those type of thoughts to yourself, please (re:Indians), it’s uncalled for…”
Wendy G – are you suddenly the moral guardian of this site …? I don’t think so.
If Mr Begley can’t repeat what he was told years ago as a young fireman by his engineer .. than our history is doomed … muffled.
Post on, Begley.
mm
Michael
I don’t think I’d call myself the moral guardian, but I will say that I don’t tolerate racism. What was said by begley was said without apology, and I took it to be rather hurtful to anyone aboriginal. In fact, I wondered how I’d have felt had it been said about my ethnic group. Call it empathy.
The belief that a bear is ‘best trained’ actually means nothing to the bear. Bears kill just about anything that gets close to them.
Yesterday on the tely, they had an elephant getting mad about all those people around, killing few.
What is interesting to note is that the people that handle the animals, maybe have the impression that they are somehow immune to getting killed.
Animals in captivity are still animals and they are wired to kill and eat. That’s the nature of things. In fact if the animals don’t, that would be unnatural.
“But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear”
Perhaps they can interview a bear sociologist and find out what psychosocial factors from its upbringing would have prompted such behaviour. Maybe an increase in the minimum wage or comprehensive infant bear care would go some way to alleviating the appalling conditions which lead to such senseless violence and cause Ken Dryden to seek the nomination of the Liberal Party.