3 bear cubs released after mom attacks woman in Butler County

By Madeline Bartos, John Shumway

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    BUTLER TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — The three bear cubs who were with their mom when she attacked a woman in Butler County have been released, the Pennsylvania Game Commission says.

Travis Lau, the agency’s communications director, said the bears were released at State Game Lands 282 in Warren County. Captured bears are usually released away from their capture site, and the state game lands provide an ideal habitat for them with plenty of food, water and cover, Lau said.

Lee Ann Galante said the cubs’ mother mauled her in her Butler Township backyard. The attack happened around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. According to Galante, she had just let her dog out when she saw three large bear cubs. She said the mother bear came up behind her, pushed her down and grabbed her.

“Then she got me by the back of the head and she was pulling so hard on it I thought I was going to get scalped,” she said.

Galante believes her dog distracted the bear, giving both of them time to escape. She’s in the hospital with a “fair amount” of puncture wounds on the back of her neck, significant lacerations to her scalp and a broken nose, her attending physician said.

The mother was tested for rabies but didn’t have it, so the Game Commission said it’s extremely unlikely that any of her cubs had it.

The cubs, who were tranquilized after the attack, are between 60 to 80 pounds and would have been leaving their mom in the coming weeks, Lau said.

“Bears are born in the den, and stay with their mothers, denning with them again the next winter,” Lau explained in an email. “Then when they emerge together, it’s only a matter of time until the young disperse to find new home ranges and the adult female will breed again. Female black bears breed every other year.”

Lau says bear attacks in Pennsylvania are rare; the commission only sees one or two bear attacks every year. Last May, a bear attacked two young children playing outside in Luzerne County.

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