Bear Kills Dog, Attacks 81-Year-Old Woman In NJ Town

SPARTA, NJ — An 81-year-old woman was injured and one of her two dogs killed on Monday night by a bear, the Sparta Township Police Department reported.

Lt. John Lamon, a spokesperson for the department, said the Echo Drive resident, who is too distraught over the loss of her English Springer Spaniel and asked not to be identified, told police she had placed her garbage outside for the Tuesday morning pickup.

When she took her dogs out around 7 p.m. Monday, they ran toward two bears that had opened up bags and were eating the trash. At the sight of the dogs approaching, one bear ran off into the woods, while the other struck one of the two oncoming dogs.

The woman was injured when she headed for the bear, yelling at it in hopes of steering it from her injured dog, the bear biting and scratching her, Lamon said. The bear picked up the hurt dog and carried it near the woods, the second dog chasing after it.

Lamon said the woman was taken to Newton Medical Center for treatment including stitches to her leg, while responding officers found the dog, which died from its injuries at a veterinary hospital.

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife game wardens opened an investigation on Tuesday morning, Lamon said and are attempting to find the bear.

According to the Division of Fish and Wildlife, black bears, with the males potentially weighing up to 600 pounds, may be active year-round and not necessarily hibernate.

Though bears may retreat to their dens in December, the Division of Fish and Wildlife website says, they enter into a state of dormancy called "torpor" and may awaken easily, leaving their dens on warmer days to look for food, with garbage "the main source of unnatural foods for black bears in New Jersey."

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