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Grizzly Bear Pawed Through The Wrong Canadian’s Cupboards

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Jonah Bennett Contributor
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After a harrowing encounter with a grizzly bear that broke into their home, one woman is glad her husband is a skilled hunter.

Early Sunday morning, Niki Traverse’s dog wouldn’t stop barking like mad, prompting her to wake up and check to see what was wrong. The Traverses live in British Columbia, Canada, in a mountain region, CBC reports. As soon as she entered into the kitchen, she saw a male grizzly bear feasting on cat and dog food in a cupboard after it had climbed through a window left open because of the heat.

Niki immediately ran back to the bedroom and woke up her husband Mark, who then brought out his hunting rifle.

“I went to the kitchen, turned the light on and where the bear was, he came at me and I took a shot,” Mark told CBC.

“By the time I reloaded the gun, he took a step more towards me, and I took another shot and he hit the floor, and he was still moving, so put another one in him, and that was the end of him,” he added. Three shots later and the bear laid dead just a few feet away from his 13-year-old son’s bedroom.

Conservation officers soon arrived and said that while break-ins by bears are generally rare, the behavior of this particular grizzly suggests that he had done this before to another house.

“I’m thankful I’m married to a hunter,” Niki told Global News. Theirs was the only house on the block with an experienced hunter.

Encounters with grizzly bears are not uncommon in certain parts of British Columbia, but not all incidents end well. In July, an engineer managed to survive despite a mother grizzly bear tackling him and tearing the flesh off on his arm. Playing dead didn’t work for George Knoll, so he kicked the bear in the face twice with his spiked boots and stumbled 650 feet to a helicopter, which lifted him to the hospital.

In Canada, carrying a handgun for protection in the bush is much more difficult and applicants have to go through an arduous process to receive authorization. An individual needing protection from wild animals in remote areas is one of only four reasons an individual can possess a concealed handgun in British Columbia.

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