A Wisconsin father can thank his 12-year-old son from saving him from being killed by a rampaging black bear on September 6.
Ryan Beierman, 43, was with his family at their hunting cabin in the Wisconsin woods when he and his son Owen started tracking a black bear. Beierman said the pair got close to the 200-pound beast when it went berserk and charged the pair while Beierman tried to shoot it. He managed to get off eight shots but none hit the angry ursine.
The bear pinned the man down and started mauling him and trying to go for his head. Beierman said he was pinned on his back and he started to pistol-whip the bear, but it felt like “striking a brick wall.” He tried to wound the bear between the ears and the mouth using the hard edge of the gun.
Luckily for Beierman, his 12-year-old son Owen was at his side carrying a rifle big enough to subdue a large creature. Beierman said that he was “flailing around” when he saw the flash from the muzzle of Owen’s rifle. The kid’s shot dig the trick, killing the bear, who rolled off his father.
Throughout the mauling, which lasted 45 seconds, Beierman said that all he could see was the bear’s claws and teeth. The angry beast took a bite out of the man, who said he could hear a “crunch” sound when the bear made his first bite.
A neighbor got Beierman to a waiting ambulance that whisked him to the hospital where he required 23 stitches. The bear bit him in the forehead, leg, and arm. The stitches were to reattach Beierman’s cheek, which was dangling in a flap off his face.
The man called his son “a hero” who shot that bear dead right on top of his father.
The boy and his dad were legally hunting the bear according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
