Ken Mauldin was awakened last weekend by his wife's constant screaming in a two-story house in themountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I was. where her three children slept one floor below her. Then she yelled, "There's a bear in the house!"
Kelly Mauldin had just been woken up by the couple's barking dog that didn't wake her husband before dawn on Saturday. She walked to the door of her matrimonial bedroom and found that about 10 feet (3 meters) away in her dining room, she was staring at a male black bear weighing about 400 pounds (181 kilograms). I was.
In an interview, Ken Mauldin picked up his .40 caliber pistol and stood at the door in place of his wife, aiming at the bear's center and firing one. said. He thinks his first shot hit the bear and Mauldin charged him as he continued to fire.
While he was shooting, the bear approached from Mauldin to as close as 5 feet (1.5 m) to him and turned toward the steps leading to the front door of the house. As Mauldin emptied his gun and slid down the stairs, the bear crashed through the railing and was fatally injured. flipped the lever on the handle and pushed the door to break into the house.
After being shot, the bear lay breathing between Mauldin and his three sons on the lower floor of the house, but it was doubtful that the bear would ever recover. was not He called his 911 and one of his sons called him on his cell phone and Mauldin told his son to stay in his room.
"My only thought was to protect my family and defeat that bear," Mauldin said.
Bear moved an unopened bag of dog food into his dining room. Police and state wildlife officials arrived shortly after and determined that the bear was dead. They used a winch to pull it onto a truck and were impressed by its size, said Justin Pollock, a 21-year officer of Colorado's Parks and Wildlife. I treat bears well, but I think this was a big bear," he said.
Colorado has about 12,000 bears, and while break-ins are not uncommon in Rocky Mountain towns, it's rare for homeowners to shoot bears in their homes, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. spokesperson Rachel Gonzalez said. State law allows people to shoot bears if they feel threatened, she said. Many bears live here because of their habitat of oak thickets, rivers and vegetation.
In the days before the bear opened the door to Maudlin's house, neighbors said the bear had broken into their garage, and other homeowners had reported bear intrusions. . Mauldin said the family closes the windows and checks to make sure the door is locked every night, but the front door was unlocked that night.
Gonzalez said he had no way of knowing if the same bears that had been foraging in other homes had invaded the Mauldin family home. Black bears avoid humans, but will return if they find food behind a window or crammed inside a bird feeder, Pollock said.
``Thebear is very clever,'' said Gonzalez.
The bear's skin and meat will be donated to people on a list of people who want to receive it, and the head will be auctioned off, Pollock said.
Mauldin hopes the home break-in will raise awareness that "something good came out of something terrible."
"We are now in a situation where we have bears in town who have lost all their natural fear of humans," Mauldin said. } ___
Jesse Bedayn is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover hidden issues. Follow Bedayn on Twitter.
