‘It was frightening:’ Asheville woman recounts backyard bear encounter

By Justin Berger

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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) -- An Asheville woman is still in disbelief after being charged at by a black bear in her backyard on the morning of Monday, June 24.

"I've been in the military, I've been in combat, but it shocked me," Audrey Thompson said.

The incident, which was caught on camera, occurred Monday morning when Thompson opened the door to play with her service dog in the backyard.

Her golden retriever, Amazing Grace — or Gracie, as her mom calls her — bounded out on the deck before Thompson caught a glimpse of the giant black bear standing over her fallen birdfeeder.

"It was frightening," Thompson said. "I really felt kind of shocked almost all day."

Normally, Thompson checks her security camera before going outside, but on Monday, she forgot.

"You're supposed to look at it before you go outside because we live on Bear Alley, literally." she said.

By the time she noticed the mother black bear and her cubs, it charged at Gracie, so Thompson went after her.

"I am a mama bear too, so I rushed down those steps," Thompson said. "All I could think was 'do not fall, do not fall, do not fall; you will be eaten.'"

Thompson does not have peripheral vision or depth perception, so those steps were extra challenging that day.

"I was like, literally, a foot and a half from the bear here through the rail and mama bear is sticking her face through and I'm trying to grab Gracie," Thompson recalled. "Mama bear charged and hit the patio wall with such force the entire deck shook and it's like a 10 by 20 deck; it's huge. She was mad; she was protecting her cubs."

Ashley Hobbs with the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission said this was a "perfect storm:" a mother protecting a reliable food source and her four cubs.

"My advice for folks that are just really bird lovers is to go ahead and plant a pollinator garden and find more natural ways to feed and attract birds without attracting the bears and other wildlife that don’t need to be so close to our home," she said.

Hobbs said it could have been worse.

"Bears are fast, powerful creatures so if it really wanted to do harm, it probably could have," Hobbs said. "Most bears just want to avoid interactions with people, avoid interactions with dogs, so they might do these sorts of displays like bluff charges or they may slap the ground, chomp their teeth, hiss or growl, make noises to let you know: 'hey you're too close.'"

"Don't mess with the bears; you leave them alone," Thompson said. "You can admire them, but respect them, back away... People don't do that and that scares me because this video of that attack tells you how scary it can be."

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