Bear injures man in 'hunting incident that went wrong' in Haywood County

Katie Wadington | The Citizen-Times

A local hunter was injured by a large bear in what law enforcement described as a "hunting incident that went wrong."

Two men had treed a bear with their hunting dogs on the morning of Nov. 2 near Mount Sterling in Haywood County, said Capt. Andrew Helton, N.C. Wildlife Resource Commission law enforcement officer for the western district. The men were hunting on U.S. Forest Service land, on the edge of the boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Once a bear is up in a tree, hunters typically will catch the dogs while another hunter shoots a bear to get it down, Helton said. In this instance, when the bear was shot, it "tumbled out and started biting the hunter holding the dogs."

"Then the bear continued at him until the man and the bear rolled off a slight cliff," he said. The bear was said to be about 350 pounds.

After reaching the bottom, the bear walked away.

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'A very rare occurrence'

Haywood County Emergency Services received a call of a bear attack, Helton said, but when officers arrived on scene, they found the hunting accident. Haywood County Search & Rescue confirmed the agency had a couple of members assisting Fines Creek Fire Department in responding to the incident.

The man suffered bites to his stomach, scratches and bites to his legs, and a fractured pelvis. The hunter was transported to Mission Hospital in Asheville.

“This is a very rare occurrence," Helton said, adding that no one in North Carolina has ever died from a bear attack. "What few (bear attacks) we have generally involve a dog or a mamma and cubs."

Wildlife Resource officers were notified of the incident late that evening. On Nov. 3, officers with the Wildlife Resources Commission found the bear lying dead in a creek about a hundred yards from where it and the hunter landed.

The officers took the bear, "with permission from the hunters," to the N.C. Department of Agriculture lab in Arden for rabies testing, which is standard when a person is attacked by a bear, Helton said.

Bear hunting season in the mountains runs Oct. 14-Nov. 23 and Dec. 16-Jan. 1, according to state hunting rules.