I couldn’t help but share this story out of Pennsylvania.
Apparently beware of bears in trees near schools too.
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@abasket This occurred 1.5 miles from my house. It is a typical suburban neighborhood. We’ve had a number of bear incidents recently, including one at the local elementary school 3 blocks from my house. That bear was shot and killed.
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To shoot and kill these bears is ridiculous.
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I agree.
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The elementary school by my house regularly has bears passing through (I noticed one had been through the dumpster the other day). No one thinks twice about it - well unless you’re the one cleaning up the trash - do they really think a bear is going to come rampaging into a bunch of screaming first graders out for recess?
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I live in an urban county in NJ. There is a bear or bears wandering around two towns near me. Locals are divided between ridiculous over-reaction and “what should we name it” amusement.
My S and his GF recently bought a house in a sort of rural community not too far away. I say “sort of” because several major highways pass nearby, and it’s really not that far away, though they are on the side of a small lake and it definitely feels country-ish. Last night he sent photos of the absolutely huge bear that passed through his backyard. He and GF are thrilled. Every day they’ve been sending lists of the wildlife they’re encountering.
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Well, DNA evidence just solved the Shenandoah murders case. Found out on my college alumni page. It was a serial rapist who died in prison. People are sharing the effects the murders had on them.
Here are some quotes from the Washington Post article linked article:
"“Kathryn Miles, author of a 2022 book on their case, “Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders,” said in an interview Thursday that she has continued to hear from people who won’t hike or camp because of these killings.
‘For an entire generation of hikers and backpackers, particularly women and people who identify as queer, the impact of this crime was such that it sort of fundamentally removed the wilderness for them and made them very afraid,’ she said. In that sense, Miles said, she considers it a hate crime even if federal investigators don’t use the term.”
"Violent crimes against women in outdoor settings raised fears at the time — and continue to do so, said Jaime Grant, a former policy director for the National LGBTQ Task Force. 'Whether or not this person targeting women saw them as queer, to me, is an aside,'Grant said. “Queer women are subject to the violence that all women are subject to.”
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Consider: You might be able to outrun or outfight a man. No human, man or woman could do either with a bear.
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But a bear probably won’t chase you, period. A man might. I can’t outrun a man.
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And bears don’t carry weapons. (To be fair, most men won’t attack anybody… even if they have a gun. But the few worrisome ones might be armed.)
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A bear won’t see a woman as prey. A man may. Enough men would and have, that women consider it a basic safety measure to be on alert until proven safe.
Humans are not prey nor food to bears. Humans can be perceived as a predator or a threat depending on the size of the bear but distance would make it safe. Surprise is the main danger, ie., you round a corner and here is a bear.
In most cases, bears don’t attack humans. Humans attack humans all the time, bigger humans attack smaller humans all the time, and sexual violence is an extra worry.
Roughly the risks of being attacked by a bear seem the same as the risks of encountering a hiker who has been carrying machetes and wants to use them rather than hide the fact.
I can’t outrun anyone. Anyway if you encounter a bear, either you back away or you drop to the ground. Don’t run 
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Out for a hike this past weekend on a local trail. As I was going along a woman that was looking over the side of a small bridge spanning a small creek called me over, “hey sir, come look at this”. I walked over and she proceeded to show me a couple small turtles playing in the water below the bridge. I almost instantly thought back to this thread. I guess she felt safe at that moment. I told her thanks for pointing out the turtles, they were neat to see. No one else was nearby at the time although the trail isn’t deserted. Just thought I would share, a sample of one.
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We had a bear, a coyote and deer with fawns all in our neighborhood recently. Neighbors posted pics (and a few amusing AI images). The momma deer was apparently pretty aggressive (I missed it all as was away on holiday) and several folks’ dogs were seen as threats by momma deer!
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This is one bear I would not choose; no way I’m getting in between a momma bear and her FIVE cubs 
(see the video in the story)
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That grizzly mom is overworked and protective. Would avoid her, too!
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The following news story from France is quite simply horrific. Read at your own discretion.
I post it here to show why some women would choose the bear.
Gisèle Pélicot is an amazingly strong, brave woman.
“The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sexual crimes. But Gisèle Pélicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, said she accepted that her name would be published in the same way that she insisted that the trial be held in public.
She told the court that she hopes her testimony might help spare other women from similar ordeals. She said she pushed for the trial in open court in solidarity with other women who go unrecognized as victims of sexual crimes.”
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I just saw an article about this today. I am absolutely appalled that any man … her husband or the dozens who raped her … can think that any part of this is okay. Clearly, society has not actually changed (which I think is evident in our own country, as well).
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The story is indeed appalling.
It’s difficult to believe that so many men would rape an unconscious woman…that so many more knew about it and didn’t report it to the authorities for over a decade! The extremely brave woman wasn’t dressed provocatively, nor was she walking in a dark alley or drinking in a bar or attending a wild party.
The rape culture is real. Look at how creepy/cringey comments are often considered as humor. Enough is enough.
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It all happened because a brave security guard figured Dominique Pelicot was “upskirting”, filming under women’s skirts. The guard detained him, searched the phone and found many similarly creepy videos, called the police and convinced the women to press charges.
At first the police wasn’t too keen on investigating what they thought was creepy but not a crime (reading the Paris Match article you get a sense the captain found it’d mobilize too many officers for something not worth their time) but since there were many videos on the phone they did send the tech unit who seized the computer and found the rape videos.
The security officer saved Gisèle’s life as well as Marie’s, whose husband Dominique had been teaching rape techniques 
Dominique had had a rape charge reduced 10 years before and no one had bothered telling his family nor anyone to “protect his privacy”.
It’s a huge moment of reckoning because in France consent is not taken into account at all in cases involving sexual assault - as a result, only 0.6% rapes result in a conviction. The victim has to demonstrate “sex” was obtained by “force, surprise, or constraint” and thus isn’t sex but assault. If the victim was in a state of shock or was drunk and couldn’t protest, then, legally no assault took place. This applies to men as well: a scout master took his late teen troop to the woods, got the young men drunk, and sexually assaulted several of them. The facts aren’t disputed but since the victims didn’t protest the scout master was found not guilty. (The families have appealed the verdict and it’s likely Gisèle will have helped them too.).
I highly recommend the tv show Sambre when it gets to the US. It’s on BBC iPlayer right now. It’s the true story of how the French police failed to catch a serial rapist who committed crimes for 30 years - more broadly, it shows through several characters, most of them good, what “rape culture” is. It’s eye opening and shows the utmost respect for the victims.
What the security guard did made him a hero - that doing what’s right is so exceptional it makes him a hero shows why women chose the bear.
1 who did something
And within 6 square miles
72 who committed crimes
And 10 who didn’t but said nothing
Odds aren’t good.
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