Ring video shows the bear entering Walter Hickox’s enclosed porch area, going after his puppies.
Hickox tells WFTV, “not a lot went through my head at the moment, other than what’s going to happen if he gets past me and into the house where the rest of my dogs and my wife was at.”
Hickox suffered minor injuries during the encounter, some deep scratches on his back & arms. His dogs were not hurt.
He says he’ll keep some bear spray in that porch area.
Fox 35 in Orlando reports:
"Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) responded to an incident where a black bear injured a man on Wednesday evening in Daytona Beach.
The man, identified as Walter Hickox, received non-life-threatening injuries from a bear while attempting to protect his dogs around 7:30 p.m. His dogs were not injured.
The incident lasted seconds but felt more like minutes to Hickox.
"I pushed a little, shoved, and he backed off the porch. Got them [the dogs] off the porch, and he disappeared into the darkness," said Hickox.
The bear scratched Hickox’s back and its teeth caught him on the shoulder...
"FWC bear biologists and law enforcement officers immediately responded to the scene and are attempting to capture the bear. Per FWC policy, staff will humanely kill the bear if captured since it poses a threat to human safety," FWC said in a news release...
After the DeBary attack, neighbors were able to scare the bear and her cubs away into the wooded area nearby until the officers with the Florida Wildlife Commission and Volusia County sheriff's deputies were able to arrive on the scene.
FWC determined the bear would be a continued threat to the public and decided to humanly euthanize it. They left her approximately 100-pound yearlings alone, as they are old enough to care for themselves."