A bear ripped open a Florida teen’s face Sunday, but she survived the attack by playing dead.
Leah Reeder, 15, was walking her Springer Spaniel in Eastpoint, Fla., at dusk about a block from her house when the bear pushed her down and started dragging her away. “I was listening to music and I heard my dog start barking,” she told The Apalach Times. “It was like a black blur.”
She screamed initially, but then decided to play dead when she realized nobody heard her.
“I stopped screaming, and it started dragging me to the ditch,” Reeder told Apalachicola Times. “It lost its grip on my jacket and fell in the ditch and got up and ran away.”
Reeder made it back to where she was staying with her father, and he called 911, reported The Daily Mail. Her leg, back, neck, ears and face were injured, and she is recovering from plastic surgery in the hospital.
“It bit her face open, and beside her ear on her scalp,” Reeder’s mother, Sheri Mann, told Apalachicola Times. “It was very, very bad.” Mann thinks the dog might have saved her by staying at the scene and barking.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took a sample of Reeder’s shirt and searched the area for the bear Sunday night. Officials told Mann they successfully trapped a bear they believe is the attacker.
The FWC is set more traps Monday. “We will likely euthanize any adult bears that we catch,” FWC spokesman Stan Kirkland told The Apalach Times. “One of the things we want to do is have the public know we have removed the bear.”
The bear attack is the second in the area, reported ABC13. Another woman required 30 stitches in her head after she was attacked.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.