A Sooke resident's attempt to help a trapped black bear went awry when his bear spray accidentally discharged, affecting both himself and his son.
An embarrassing encounter with one of Vancouver Island’s four-legged wild neighbours, left a man with more than just the proverbial egg on his face – he got a pump of bear spray. When Sooke resident Robb McCaghren set off for an evening walk with his 14-year-old son Devlin and their dog, their adventure was cut short when they discovered a black bear trapped inside their strata’s fenced waste disposal enclosure.
While the bear had been able to scale the “fortress-like” enclosure, it seemingly was unable to get back out, says McCaghren. “It wasn't being aggressive, it was obviously panicked and really wanted to get out of there,” he said. “It looked like it had been trapped in there for a while … there were claw marks on the inside from where it was trying to get out.” McCaghren decided he had to help. Armed with a can of bear spray in case the bear decided to charge him, McCaghren’s plan was to kick open the sliding door to the enclosure and free the wild animal. He also wanted to give the bear a fright, believing it to be the same bear which had rifled through the strata’s garbage the night before. “A bear habituated to eating garbage is a dead bear, so I just wanted to scare it away,” said McCaghren. But his plan went awry. When McCaghren kicked the door open, the force sent him stumbling backwards. “I’m 6”10’, so my centre of gravity is quite high,” he said. “I ended up running backwards at full speed for about 10 feet before I went down.” When he landed, the can of bear spray fired for “less than a second,” but it was enough to cause McCaghren some pain and discomfort. Standing downwind, his teenage son also copped a mouthful of the potent irritant. “We were both sputtering and coughing,” said McCaghren. The commotion had also attracted an audience of McCaghren’s new neighbours – he and his family moved to Sooke from Naniamo in late November. This was the family's first bear encounte
BEAR CANADA ENCOUNTER SPRAY WILDLIFE
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