Shocking video shows the moment a Florida man fought off a black bear on his porch, saving his dachshunds.
The attack occurred Wednesday night in Daytona Beach, according to WFTV, and video of the incident, captured on Ring doorbell footage, was released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
The video shows the black bear lunging over a gate in the porch’s doorway as the dogs run over to investigate the intruder. Walter Hickox then dives at the predator and pushes it back through the door as it swipes at his back. Once the bear is off the porch, he moves a bench to the entrance to keep the animal out of the residence.
“Oh my God! I just got attacked by a bear,” he yells.
His injuries were non-life-threatening, and the bear did not harm the dogs, the FWC said.
Hickox spoke with WFTV about the wild incident.
“Not a lot went through my head at the moment, other than what’s going to happen if he gets past me and into the house where the rest of my dogs and my wife was at,” Hickox explained.
His neighbor, Elliot Michael, told WKMG that bears frequent the area, and it seemed the predator was a mother with her cubs.
“Looked like a mom protecting one of her cubs. Cubs rifle through the garbage, they went away. Mama bear went back, then the dogs start barking,” he said.
A trap was set up outside of Hickox’s home.
“FWC says they’re going to continue their efforts to find the bear,” said Mark Lehman of WKMG. “The agency saying, If captured it’s their policy to humanely kill the animal because it poses a threat to human safety.
In a similar incident, a black bear attacked a DeBary woman named Aydee while she walked her dog on January 13. She “suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including scratches on her face, hands and back,” WKMG reports.
Her dog was uninjured, and the bear was captured and killed.
The FWC provided several tips for individuals when encountering a bear:
- “Don’t run; running may trigger a chase response. Back away slowly in the opposite direction and wait for the bear to leave.”
- “From a safe distance, make loud noises to scare away the bear.”
- “Give the bear a clear escape route (do not corner it).”
- “If the bear makes contact with you, fight back aggressively.”
- “If your dog and a bear make contact, make noise and use bear spray or a water hose to try and break them up.”
“The FWC receives up to 6,000 bear-related calls a year and have documented only 15 incidents of people being moderately to seriously injured by bears” a press release from the agency states.