A Saskatchewan woman needed 34 staples in her leg and suffered psychological trauma after she was attacked by a black bear while camping in a provincial park.
Casadi Schroeder was with her husband and children in Meadow Lake Provincial Park on June 10 when she says her eight-year-old son woke her up to report the bear outside their cabin’s window.
Schroeder’s husband Brad went outside to scare the bear away. Thinking it was gone, Casadi headed out to warn other campers. That’s when the bear attacked.
“It just felt like he was biting so deep that it was going into my bones,” she told CTV Saskatoon. “I just felt like my legs were being eaten alive and he just would bite in and rip, and bite in and rip.”
Schroeder says she was prepared to die.
“In that moment I had a lot of peace and I was like, ‘Yeah, Jesus, I’m ready to go.’”
Brad came running and managed to help Casadi escape to a nearby cabin. The bear clawed at Brad’s hip, but he fought it off and made it back to the cabin with his kids.
“My husband remembers connecting with the bear with his fist and thinking, ‘Man, that bear is really solid,’” according to Casadi.
Saskatchewan conservation officer Kevin Harrison says a bear was trapped and killed that evening and testing in Alberta confirmed it was the same bear.
Harrison said that black bears are not uncommon in northern Saskatchewan and people who see them should stay calm, keep at a far distance and make loud noises.
“If you’re getting attacked by a bear, you defend yourself any way possible,” he said.
With a report from CTV Saskatoon’s Stephanie Villella
