And we thought a trip to the drop toilet here was scary! A Canadian camper is recovering in hospital after being attacked by a bear while visiting the ‘facilities’ near Sioux Lookout, Ontario.
Apparently, 65-year-old Gord Shurvell from Winnipeg had left the door of the outhouse toilet door open to enjoy the morning views when the black bear caught him with his pants down … literally. “I’m sitting on the throne, and my feet are sort of up on the ‘poopstool,’ as we call it, when the bear charged in,” Mr Shurvell told CBC News. “So I’m kicking at him to get away, but he grabbed my pants that were down around my ankles… and he just kept coming.”
The bear reportedly grabbed the retired train conductor’s neck and then dragged him about 50 feet from the outhouse. Fortunately, Mr Shurvell’s camping companion, Daniel Alexander, heard the commotion and grabbed his rifle before shooting the bear in the head and killing it.
Mr Shurvell received stitches for claw wounds and bites on his back and neck, but his injuries were not life-threatening.
He told the Winnipeg Free Press that he’d been hunting and fishing in the region for decades.
“I’ve been around in the bush… and I’ve never come this close to trouble with a bear,” he said. “Of course, I never enticed them… I knew enough to respect them, let’s put it that way.”
Sioux Lookout police said there had been reports of bear activity in the area, but no word of attacks.
