New York Black Bear pins woman to the ground while feasting on her easy-to-open traditional garbage cans...........The bear did not seek to claw or bite her.....just wanted the garbage.....................Guys and Gals: we have to get bear proof garbage cans and put them out the morning of collection so as to minimize bears froms entering human neighborhoods............Unfortunately, a garbage fed bear is going to end up shot dead by us, the very creatures who foolishly encourage their encroachment through our errant behaviors

Woman attacked by bear: 'I thought I was going to die'

ALBANY - There weren't any visible injuries on Joy Bayer-Mozynski as she sat in her hospital bed at Albany Medical Center.  But, the 53-year-old says her back is very sore from where she was pinned down by a large black bear. It happened Wednesday afternoon.

Bayer-Mozynski saw the garbage cans outside her Round Top home, a hamlet of Cairo, were knocked over, and the lids were off.  She thought the cats did it.  When she walked over to pick them up, she was hit from behind. "All of a sudden, I just felt a 'Womp!'  I thought the roof of the garage had fallen and hit me, that's how hard it hit me.  The bear just held me with one paw down on the middle of my back, put one leg between my two legs, and grabbed the garbage with his other paw."

Bayer-Mozynski says she was pinned down for about ten minutes.  The whole time, she says she prayed. "I was just praying every prayer I've ever learned in my life, saying goodbye to all my people.  Making amends to anybody I've done wrong in my life.  I thought I was going to die.  And my biggest fear was when are my children coming home and finding me in the driveway ripped up like that."

But, after the bear finished gathering garbage, he left and let Bayer-Mozynski go.  She stayed on the ground for another ten minutes, tried not to move, not even breath, so if the bear came back he would think she was dead.

Finally, when she thought it was safe, Bayer-Mozynski screamed for help.  She couldn't get up because the attack hurt her back, which was already injured.  She crawled inside her house, pulled the phone down by its cord and called her husband. Thursday afternoon, Bayer-Mozynski said she's still in a lot of pain, but she wanted to tell her story to warn others to be careful.

"Animals are animals.  They're unpredictable.  We're encroaching on their environment." 

The Department of Environmental Conservation set up a bear trap in Bayer-Mozynski's yard.  A spokesperson says because of the seriousness of the encounter, any large bear caught will likely be euthanized.

The DEC is sharing tips to protect yourself from bear attacks:

http://wnyt.com/wnytimages/repository/cs/PDF/%20Bears11.pdf