Victim of bear attack did it to save her dog
Lee Ann Galante let her Pomeranian dog, Smokie, outside at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, and looked outside to see him barking at silhouettes in a tree. They were three “huge” black bear cubs.
While outdoor cameras owned by her neighbors caught sight of a bear on Bellefield Drive about two weeks prior, Galante didn’t expect it to return on the rainy night. She immediately went to defend her dog when she spotted three black bear cubs. Galante then saw the mother bear, who she said towered over her 5-foot-5 stature.
“We had been taking flashlights out with us to look at the side of the house where our bird feeders were,” Galante said. “Yesterday it was kind of rainy and warm, I wasn't thinking bears at all. I left him outside alone.”
Galante said the mother bear approached her as she was yelling from steps leading from the deck in her backyard to the cement landing, and knocked her down onto it.
She said she heard her face crack when she hit the ground, but her first concern was about her teeth.
“My face completely smashes, I can just hear it crunch,” Galante said. “I thought I lost my teeth, and I’m like ‘No, not my teeth.’ Because I'm a dental hygienist.”
The bear didn’t stop there. She started tearing at the back of Galante’s head and hair. Galante said that at this point, she thought she wouldn’t make it out alive. She said she was screaming for someone to help her as the bear was attacking.
The bear then turned her attention to Smokie, who was trying to get up the stairs and into the house.
“She had him cornered and I start hollering, ‘No, Smokie, no,’” Galante said. “Smokie weighs 8 pounds. All it would take was one bite. I had to save Smokie. He doesn’t deserve that.”
The bear then came back at Galante, knocked her down and bit her arm while getting on top of her prone body. Galante said she was somehow able to crawl to her back door, get inside with Smokie and slam the door behind them. Police arrived at her front door after she crawled to her landline to dial 911.
Galante said the police found the mother and her cubs in a neighbor’s yard in a tree. Police euthanized the mother bear and tranquilized the three cubs.
A self-described animal-lover, Galante said the outcome for the mother bear was not ideal, but she feared for her own safety and the safety of the people in her neighborhood after the attack.
“I love animals and I didn’t want to see that happen,” Galante said. “That bear was nuts. There’s tons of kids in our neighborhood, they have been out playing since it has been nice out.”
An ambulance transported Galante to Butler Memorial Hospital, but she then went to Allegheny General Hospital for more treatment. She said there are 50-some staples in the back of her head, plus numerous stitches on different body parts, including her face.
In the hours since the attack, Galante has received many messages from friends and family checking on her status. Galante said she had never seen a bear in the wild before Tuesday, and it’s still hard for her to believe what happened to her was real, so she is thankful to everyone who has contacted her since her attack.
“I never dreamed bears were that aggressive,” Galante said. “I thought she would run away with her cubs. I want to thank everybody that reached out. It has been amazing.”
