Earlier Last week in International Falls, MN, it was reported that there was a woman on a small island in Canadian waters that was slaughtered by a black bear in a very rare attack.
The 62 year-old, known as Catherine Sweatt-Mueller went outside of her parents’ cabin on Red Pine Island at Rainy Lake, after hearing the dogs barking. One of the dogs was injured and it actually made it back to the cabin alive, which indicated an attack to her parents (who are both in their 80’s). Catherine’s mother called the police, and the investigation led to them (the officers) finding a bear standing over Catherine’s unfortunately limp body, forcing them to shoot the bear and kill it, but it was too late.
Most black bears that occur only happen about once a year in all of North America, as the bears are more skittish in nature. A person is more likely to be attacked by a grizzly bear, but only about twice a year on average. It’s been scientifically proven that bears may be aggressive to dogs and my even charge after a dog if it’s being walked by its owner, and sometimes a bear might come running to the owner in an already aggravated state when the dog runs back to its owner. The island that Sweatt-Mueller’s family were staying at is a small island in which the entire property is owned by the family members of Catherine, and it’s normally only accessible by a 20-minute or so boat ride, which makes it even more rare of a case.