Semi-Pro Bear Kills Trainer, Commits Suicide
04-25-08, 09:15 AM
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Semi-Pro Bear Kills Trainer, Commits Suicide
Semi-Pro Bear Kills Trainer
Today 7:29 AM PDT
The grizzly bear that comically smacked down Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro fatally mauled its handler on Tuesday.
The massive animal, whose named is Rocky, was being put through obedience exercises at the Predators in Action wild animal training center in, ironically, Big Bear, Calif., when it bit 39-year-old Stephan Miller on the neck, according to a spokeswoman for the San Bernadino County Sheriff's Office.
Fellow trainers used pepper spray to separate the 700-pound, 7½-foot male brown bear from its victim and restrain the creature. There were no other injuries reported.
Paramedics arrived soon after but were unable save Miller, who died at the scene.
Rocky's handler was a cousin of Predators owner Randy Miller, who could not be reached for comment.
It's unclear if the 5-year-old bear attacked Miller or if the bite was accidental, along the lines of the 2003 incident in which a Siberian tiger critically wounded Siegfried & Roy's Roy Horn during his Vegas act. The ursine encounter came during shooting of a promotional video and authorities have taken custody of the footage.
Predators in Action, whose stable includes two more grizzlies, lions, tigers, leopards, cougars and wolves employable for film and TV work, states on its website that the facility has had a perfect safety record in the past.
Two state agencies, the Department of Fish and Game and Occupational Safety and the Health Administration, are investigating the death, but officials have not yet decided whether to euthanize Rocky.
Today 7:29 AM PDT
The grizzly bear that comically smacked down Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro fatally mauled its handler on Tuesday.
The massive animal, whose named is Rocky, was being put through obedience exercises at the Predators in Action wild animal training center in, ironically, Big Bear, Calif., when it bit 39-year-old Stephan Miller on the neck, according to a spokeswoman for the San Bernadino County Sheriff's Office.
Fellow trainers used pepper spray to separate the 700-pound, 7½-foot male brown bear from its victim and restrain the creature. There were no other injuries reported.
Paramedics arrived soon after but were unable save Miller, who died at the scene.
Rocky's handler was a cousin of Predators owner Randy Miller, who could not be reached for comment.
It's unclear if the 5-year-old bear attacked Miller or if the bite was accidental, along the lines of the 2003 incident in which a Siberian tiger critically wounded Siegfried & Roy's Roy Horn during his Vegas act. The ursine encounter came during shooting of a promotional video and authorities have taken custody of the footage.
Predators in Action, whose stable includes two more grizzlies, lions, tigers, leopards, cougars and wolves employable for film and TV work, states on its website that the facility has had a perfect safety record in the past.
Two state agencies, the Department of Fish and Game and Occupational Safety and the Health Administration, are investigating the death, but officials have not yet decided whether to euthanize Rocky.
04-25-08, 09:27 AM
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Yeah what gives? Who committed suicide?
04-25-08, 09:41 AM
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Boy! And seeing this thread's title, I was thinking that it was one of those stories in which the bear got hold of a gun, shot down his trainer and then put the barrel in his own mouth and pulled the trigger.
04-25-08, 02:30 PM
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The massive animal, whose named is Rocky, was being put through obedience exercises at the Predators in Action wild animal training center in, ironically, Big Bear, Calif., when it bit 39-year-old Stephan Miller on the neck, according to a spokeswoman for the San Bernadino County Sheriff's Office.
04-25-08, 02:33 PM
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Originally Posted by SFranke
Is ironic officially a synonym for coincidental or do we still need several thousand more people who don't know the difference?
04-26-08, 12:40 PM
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Oh I get it, the bear must have known that by killing its trainer, the death sentence would be issued as punishment. So by killing the trainer it more or less 'committed suicide'. Bears are more clever than I thought!
04-26-08, 02:45 PM
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Originally Posted by Snowmaker
I thought he was saying that someone who works with "trained" ferocious animals must be suicidal.
04-28-08, 07:28 AM
#23
Forgetting the whole Commits Suicide thing....i hate it when this sort of thing happens. Why you make ask. Well in the end the animal might get put down and for what.....living by its own instinct and the way it should. When are people going to learn that you are literally playing with your life when you try and tame these creatures which cannot and should not be tamed. Its cruel and unfair. The bear was being trained for discipline....i would like to have seen the methods used to do this. I am sure that something must have provoked the bear.
04-28-08, 02:18 PM
#25
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Can't say he wasn't warned.
Spoiler:
