The frightened but powerful bruin fell into a swimming pool at least twice during the ordeal, according to a report Saturday in the Press Enterprise of Bloomsburg. But the group eventually got the jar off and set the animal free.
"I thought, 'No one is going to believe us,' " said Morgan Laskowski, 22, a bartender at the Jamison City Hotel and a member of the impromptu bear-wrangling team.
Residents first spotted the 100-pound bear with a red jar on its head on June 3, but it eluded game wardens. The animal was attracted to the container because it appeared to have once contained cooking oil.
"He put his head in, and had a problem," said Mike Jurbala, 68, another rescuer. "He'd have died in a couple more days."
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| A whitetail deer has it's head stuck in a jar, Saturday, June 8, 2013 in Hermantown, Minn. A whitetail deer got its head stuck in a clear plastic jar that prevented it from eating or drinking for several days, until a resourceful Duluth, Minn. area woman managed to pop the jar off.(AP Photo/Janet L. Murphy) |
Jurbala saw the bear Thursday night as he was leaving the bar at the Jamison City Hotel in Benton, midway between Wilkes-Barre and Williamsport. He called Jeff Hubler, a local employee of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who had been among those trying for days to capture the bear with a lasso. The two teamed up with Laskowski and her mother, Jody Boyle, to follow the bear.
"You knew where he was because you could hear him banging into things," Jurbala said.
They cornered the bear in a backyard, where it ended up falling into a pool a couple of times.
Eventually, they wrangled the animal into a position where Hubler could pull off the jar.
"You'd think the bear would be weak, because it hadn't eaten or drunk for a week, but it was strong," Boyle said.
Hubler said people should keep lids on food jars that they throw away.
(Philly.com - June 16, 2013)
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| In this undated photo provided by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, a bear with a jar stuck on its head is seen in Cocke County, Tenn. State wildlife officers looked for the bear for three weeks after reports he was caught in the unfortunate headgear, until wildlife officer Shelley Hammonds of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency spotted him on July 17. She tranquilized the bear, and the bear collapsed in downtown Newport, Tenn., where dozens of people watched the jar removal. The bear weighed just 115 pounds, when it should have weighed around 200. It was released into the Cherokee National Forest. (AP Photo/Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency) |
