ABCNews.com(NAPLES, Fla.) — One South Florida man is thankful to still be alive after losing a boxing match with a bear just steps outside his home.
Andy Meunier was letting his dog out from his Naples, Florida, home on Tuesday night when he turned just in time to see a bear staring him down from feet away.
“Everything went in slow motion. It was just as scary as you can imagine,” Meunier told ABC affiliate WZVN. “It was standing in front of me and I tried to turn left real quick and get back in the house, and caught an uppercut from a brown, or a black, bear.”
The swipe earned Meunier a nasty gash running along the entire left side of his face that required 41 stitches to close.
He was knocked to the ground, but managed to scramble to his feet and get back inside the house before the situation got any worse.
“Truthfully, I’m not sure how I got out alive,” Meunier said.
The bear was not a stranger to him. Meunier said he’d seen bears in the neighborhood before, though they are not common to South Florida. Meunier told WZVN that he was told he’s the first person to ever be attacked by a bear in South Florida.
“I’ve seen them before, just never 2 feet away, swinging at me,” he said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) placed traps around the neighborhood — baited with donuts, according to WZVN — in order to capture the bear responsible for the attack.
He’s kept his sense of humor throughout the incident. Meunier joked that it looked like he’d been attacked by the X-Men character Wolverine.
“I don’t care if this scars, or anything, I walked away with my life, and it could’ve been a whole lot worse,” Meunier said.
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