By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Only days after TGM contributing writer Dean Weingarten finished his two-part series on bear attacks om the U.S., a woman walking her dog Sunday morning in Washington state’s Snohomish County was attacked by a black bear, biting and clawing her.
KOMO News in Seattle—the local ABC News affiliate—quoted a wildlife enforcement officer with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, who said the woman did nothing wrong to provoke the attack. WDFW agents tried to locate the attacking bruin for several hours, even using hounds in an effort to pick up a scent. If the bear is located, it might be captured and moved to another location, KOMO reported.
However, the attack brought more than 50 reactions from KOMO viewers and readers, including a couple blaming an increase in bear-human encounters to banning hunting bears and mountain lions with hounds almost 30 years ago by citizen initiative.
One person wrote, “Bring back Bear and Cougar hunting with dogs. Need to reduce the populations and balance the ecosystem.”
Another commented, “This moment of terror was brought to you by all those ‘voters based on feelings’ who outlawed hunting apex predators with dogs, and our own antihunting WDFW Commission.”
A third suggested carrying “a Colt Anaconda, Kodiak or a Smith Model 29, 69 or 629.”
The S&W Model 69 is a 5-shot ,.44 Magnum built on the company’s popular “L” frame.
Seattle’s KING News—the local NBC News affiliate—said the bear attacked the woman from behind, knocking her to the ground. The bear continued its attack as she fled to her home, where she called police.
The woman was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries
WDFW agents set a trap in hopes of capturing the animal.
In 1996, after a big money emotion-packed campaign, Washington voters banned hound hunting for bears, mountain lions, bobcats and foxes. Almost four years ago, in November 2022, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to permanently eliminate the traditional spring black bear hunt, a move hailed by the antihunting group Washington Wildlife First, but which went against recommendations from Department of Fish and Wildlife staff.
This incident might also raise alarms in other communities where residents have mentioned on social media that there are black bears in the neighborhood.
Weingarten’s two-part series listed black and grizzly bear attacks which have happened over the past few decades.
Another writer, Michael Dickerson of Texas, has also done extensive work logging bear attacks in North America during 2026.
Between the two writers, there is a pretty comprehensive list of bear attacks on humans.
