12-year-old boy fatally shoots black bear mauling his dad during hunt in Wisconsin
A 12-year-old boy shot and killed a wounded black bear as it was mauling his father near their hunting cabin in the thick western Wisconsin woods.
SIREN, Wis. — A 12-year-old boy shot and killed a wounded black bear as it was mauling his father near their hunting cabin in the thick western Wisconsin woods.
Ryan Beierman, 43, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he was pinned beneath the 200-pound bruin on Sept. 6 when his son, Owen, fired a shot from the boy’s hunting rifle.
“Owen was a hero. He shot that bear and killed it on top of me,” said Beierman, who suffered bites to his forehead, arm and leg. He also needed stitches to reattach a flap of skin on his cheek that was ripped during the attack.
Ryan Beierman and his son, Owen.Courtesy Ryan BeiermanEarlier, he and Owen spotted the bear from a tree stand near Siren, Wisconsin, about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. Owen fired a shot, wounding the bear, which then ran away. The pair waited about 20 minutes before starting to look for the bear and used a neighbor’s tracking dog to try and find it.
“We were sort of hung up in a thicket when we heard the dog yelp and sprint past us in retreat,” Beierman told the newspaper. “Just then, I stepped into a semi-clearing. I said, ‘There he is, Owen.’”
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