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It was a bear attack, dog owner stresses

The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.

The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.

Creighton resident Curtis Walker is angry that local SPCA President Debbie Hiebert questioned a story about his dog that recently appeared in The Reminder. In yesterday's Reminder, Hiebert said she found the story of a bear climbing onto his deck and attacking the pet "hard to believe." "I really don't think she had the right to do this," said Walker yesterday after reading the story. "I think she should phone people and get information before she starts making accusations about other people." Walker said this is no time to try to soften the threat posed by bears, who have been spotted in above-average numbers this year and are often hungry due to a poor berry crop. "If people get complacent, something bad is going to happen, and it might be a child (getting attacked) next time," he said, adding that despite the best efforts of police and Conservation, the bear problem is serious. Walker said that on August 25, he was awoken at about 3:30 a.m. by the sound of his dog, Bandit, squealing on his deck. He said he could see the light-coloured dog and recalled thinking she may have partially fallen through a hole in the deck. Walker said that he and his wife stepped onto the deck and, in the dark of night, saw black fur and the outline of an animal, which they were not, at that point, certain was a bear. The animal was fighting with the dog, Walker said, and his wife grabbed Bandit by her collar but soon had her ripped out of her hands. Walker said that Bandit stopped squealing when she was pulled down the stairs, leaving him to presume that she had been killed. The couple initially thought the attacker might have been a large dog, but evidence suggested otherwise. Officials with Saskatchewan Environment found bear tracks at the scene the next day. "I was told flat out that it was a bear," said Walker. Walker said that this whole experience was scary and has caused he and his wife to lose sleep, and added that Hiebert's statement only made things worse. "My dog is totally gone and we watched the whole thing," he lamented. Hiebert, who has been president of the Flin Flon, Creighton and Area SPCA since it was formed, visited The Reminder offices on Monday to suggest that bears are "being blamed for things they aren't doing." She said that she believes that Ben, the dog that appeared in The Reminder last week, was not the victim of a bear attack, as the owner said, but rather was bitten by flies, causing the animal to aggressively scratch itself. As part of that story, she also said she had doubts about the authenticity of the information in the article on Walker's dog. Both pet owners have now strongly disagreed with Hiebert's statements.

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