A Californian teenage girl recently took on a mother bear, seemingly on the verge of entering her home in order to protect her dogs. The episode took place in the city of Bradbury, east of Los Angeles and was captured on a CCTV camera. Since then, footage of the girl rushing up and calmly pushing a massive bear off the wall has gone viral.
The footage shows a mother bear and her two cubs walking atop a brick fence outside 17-year-old Hailey's home in Bradbury before they were stopped in their path by a pack of dogs who began barking at them. While the cubs retreated, the bear attempted to swipe at a pup from the pack. On realising the danger, Hailey runs and pushes it off the wall in the nick of time.
โI go over to the bear, I look it in the eyes, and the first thing I think to do is push it. Push a bear, push an apex predator, man,โ she said. โAnd to be honest, I donโt think I like pushed her that hard, I just pushed her enough to make her lose her balance," she said while recounting her experience on TikTok.
Hailey initially thought that her dogs were barking at another dog or squirrel, "I go to tell them to stop, and when I go over there to see what they're barking at, I'm like 'that's a funny-looking dog'," she said.
Bears are common in communities like Bradbury which is located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains toward the edge of the Angeles National Forest.
Talking about the incident, Hailey's mother told the BBC, "It's horrifying to see your daughter approach a huge bear and just thinking that the bear could have swiped at her face...we would be having another kind of news today".
โDo not push bears, do not get close to bears. You do not want to get unlucky. I just happened to come out unscathedโ, Haley told the news station.
Many on twitter have lauded the girl's courage, whereas others empathized with the bear and its family.
There were a few witty remarks as well.