Digg



del.icio.us



Newsvine



Reddit



Facebook HELEN, Ga. (AP)  A 300-pound black bear raided a family's campsite, and the father saved his sons from harm by throwing a log at the beast, killing it with a single blow. Chris Everhart and his three sons were camping in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia when the encounter happened Saturday. The bear took the family's cooler and was heading back to the woods when the youngest son, 6-year-old Logan, hurled a shovel at it. VIDEO: Dad protects son, killing animal with a single blow The bear then dropped the cooler and started coming at the boy, said his father. Fearing what might happen next, Everhart, an ex-Marine, grabbed the closest thing he could find — a log from their stash of firewood. "(I) threw it at it and it happened to hit the bear in the head," Everhart said. "I thought it just knocked it out but it actually ended up killing the bear." Everhart was given a ticket for failing to secure his camp site, said Ken Riddleberger, a region supervisor for game management with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "We've not had an attack in Georgia," Riddleberger said. "The key thing to learn from this is if there's a bear around, do not have your garbage or food available. If we manage our food, we won't have bears around." The attack happened the same weekend that an 11-year-old boy was killed by a black bear while camping in a forest in Utah. Sam Ives was found mauled to death after he was pulled screaming from his tent in the Uinta National Forest, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Authorities said it was the first recorded fatal attack by a black bear in that state. His family said there was no food in the tent to attract a bear. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Share this story: Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.