Domesticated bear attacks people, killed

A bear that escaped from its owner last week and injured two in southern Vietnam was overpowered and killed by a police team Friday.

The 100-kg bear was shot Friday at Dai Nam Cultural Tourism Park in Thu Dau Mot town.

The six-year-old animal, raised from birth by Nguyen Van Luc, a college headmaster in Binh Duong province, broke iron bars in its cage and escaped last Sunday.

But since it was tagged with an electronic chip, it was easily tracked down the next day to a 200-ha vegetable garden in the park, not far from Luc’s house.

Luc and the park director, Tran Dang Trung, went in search of the animal when it leapt out from behind a bush and attacked Luc.

Trung said it had pushed Luc on the ground and repeatedly pawed him on his head and face.

Luc had to have 100 stitches and is still in hospital.

When Trung tried to kick the bear away from Luc, it turned on him and viciously scratched his right arm.

He had to be hospitalized too.

The animal ran away when it saw people rushing towards it.

On Thursday the local government instructed the police to hunt down the animal and on Sunday morning, Trung, recovered by now, and a police team chased it down on a bulldozer.

Hungry and groggy after being hit with tranquilizer darts, the bear was easily subdued by the crane’s arm and shot dead.
Asked why the animal had to be killed, Trung offered a bizarre explanation: “That the animal turned upon the person who raised it means there has been a great change in its mentality… it cannot be ‘re-educated’.”

Trung said many private owners of wild animals in Vietnam were very careless and did not have tranquilizers at hand for emergencies. They only cared about the bears’ bile and not their cages, he added.

Around 5,000 bears are being raised in the country, mostly for extracting bile.

“[People] do not pay attention to their inherent violent nature which can manifest at any moment,” he said.

Last year a bear in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc district killed its owner. Earlier, a woman in the city’s Binh Chanh district had both her arms bitten off by another bear.

Reported by Hung Son, Quang Thuan
Translated by A.N.O.N