Bear attack sends New York boy to hospital

A black bear attacked a young boy outside his home in Bedford, New York, on Tuesday morning, but his parents were able to scare the animal away and save their son, officials said.

By the time emergency workers arrived, the boy’s mother, a doctor, had bandaged him, said Carlos Cano, chief of the Armonk Fire Department. The boy was hospitalized, but officials said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

Cano’s colleagues, who responded to the scene, told him that the bear appeared to have grabbed the boy, who he said was about 7.

“Mom was still in shock,” he said.

When officers arrived, the bear was still in the family’s yard, and they shot it. The North Castle, New York, police department said the animal had presented a danger to emergency workers and residents.

Officials will test the bear’s carcass for rabies, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said.

The North Castle police did not respond to questions about the boy’s condition, or the killing of the bear. Messages left for the family were not immediately returned.

In Westchester County, where the attack occurred, the number of reported bear sightings or interactions with humans appears to be increasing: from 9 in 2017 to 40 last year. State officials said the bear population is small and relatively stable in the county, a mostly suburban area just north of New York City.

The local bear population is just a fraction of the estimated 6,000 to 8,000 bears in New York state.

Bear attacks are exceedingly rare. Although black bears are not typically aggressive, the chance of a dangerous encounter increases if they are living near humans.

Last fall, a bear attacked a 10-year-old boy in his grandparents’ backyard in Morris, Connecticut, about 60 miles northeast of Tuesday’s attack. That bear was killed; the child was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.