Quick Take
- Joe Reda grabbed one household item before heading to his shed, and that single decision is the only reason he survived the next 40 minutes. Read how the shovel helped →
- Bears don't just raid garbage cans. Reda's warning about what they're actually hunting will change how you think about backyard pets. Hear Reda's pet warning →
The average American will likely never have to face off against a lion or a tiger. Bears, on the other hand, live across North America and can be a serious problem under the right conditions. Normally, bears are more afraid of people than people are of them. However, pets—including dogs and, apparently, goats—can provoke a bear to become aggressive. A Connecticut man recently learned just how terrifying that can be after he fought off a bear to save his pet goat.
People face off against bears fairly regularly on hiking trails deep in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest. By comparison, Bethlehem, Connecticut, is not particularly rural. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop a bear from attacking a man’s pet goat, resulting in a shocking 40-minute standoff and struggle. Let’s learn more about this heart-pumping story and how Joe Reda summoned all his courage to save his goat and his own neck in the process.
A Rumbling From the Shed
A Connecticut man endured a 40-minute faceoff with a bear that was attacking his pet goat.
©Kerry Hargrove/Shutterstock.com
Last week, a Bethlehem, Connecticut resident got the surprise of a lifetime after investigating a strange noise coming from his yard. As reported by various media outlets, including Eyewitness News 3, Bethlehem resident Joe Reda was minding his own business when he heard a strange squeal from outside his home, the kind he had never heard before. Before going to investigate, he grabbed a shovel for good measure.
It is a good thing he did, because Reda went out to his shed only to find a bear with his pet goat in its mouth. As Reda explained to reporters, while the scene was frightening, he had to stand his ground. He said, “I had my grandsons here, my daughters here, the last thing I wanted to do is run.”
Reda fashioned his shovel into a spear and pointed it at the bear, but the animal refused to leave. The two entered an agonizingly slow standoff that lasted 40 minutes. During that time, Reda was even clawed in the chest, but he refused to back down. Thanks to help from his bulldog named Heavy and a few warning shots fired into the sky by his wife, the bear eventually ran off.
Dozens of Stitches
Once the bear had run off, Reda rushed his goat, named Cole, to a nearby emergency veterinarian. Cole required 80 stitches after the attack but survived. In the wake of the whole affair, Reda set up extra cameras on his property and is considering putting up electric fencing. As reported, state police and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection responded to the scene following the encounter.
Reda may have had the courage to stand up to an aggressive bear and live to tell the tale, but he doesn’t want his neighbors to have to endure the same ordeal. He told reporters, “People think bears eat berries and garbage. They’re eating donkeys, llamas, goats, sheep, it’s a bigger problem, and the biggest thing is living here now, when you have your grandson playing outside, you can’t leave him unattended.”
Until more is done to address the bear threat, Reda will remain concerned for the safety of pets and livestock in the area. Residents said there have been several bear attacks in the past year.
