Bear Steals 50 Lbs. of Dog Food

CHUCKEY, Tenn. (AP)—For all the frightening bear news in Tennessee in recent months, Rela Foshie didn't know what to do when a black bear she said had recently visited her back porch decided to let himself in on Thursday.

"It came in the back door,'' she said. "I don't know how it got the door opened, but it did. He was in the hallway where the dog food was.''

Foshie ran to the bedroom of her home about 10 miles northeast of Greeneville, locked the door and grabbed her husband's rifle.

She called 911 and her husband, but the bear left by the time they showed up.

"I was done. I mean I was terrorized,'' said Foshie, who said she fired one round. "I didn't know how to use the gun and I shot wrong. If I'd shot straight, he'd have been dead already.''

The bear was apparently attracted to food for the couple's six-month-old puppy, Buddy.

"He took the whole thing, the 50-pound bag of dog food and the plastic tub it was in, and dragged it though the backyard,'' she said. "That makes two bags. One last week and now one this week.''

Foshie believes it was the same stubborn bear that snatched dog food off her porch last week.

"This bear, not this past Friday but the one before, I beat on a pan, making a lot of noise and squealing at it but it wouldn't move,'' she said. "You can't do nothing to scare this bear away because he's not listening to you.''

On Wednesday, state wildlife officials said DNA tests confirmed that a captured bear was the one responsible for killing a 6-year-old Ohio girl and injuring her mother and younger brother in April in Cherokee National Forest, about 130 miles southwest of Chuckey.