Homeowner relives horrific attack by mother black bear that knocked her to the ground and started biting her head in her own backyard: “I thought she was going to scalp me”

A homeowner described her horror after she was attacked by a mother bear who began biting off her head in her backyard in Pennsylvania.

Lee Ann Galante thought the black bear was going to scalp her during the brutal attack in the backyard of her Butler Township home Tuesday night.

The 55-year-old woman let her Smokie Pomeranian go for a walk. She heard a commotion and knew the dog was in danger.

Galante then saw the silhouette of three bear cubs in a neighbor’s tree before their angry mother appeared on the scene.

‘I see this big bear jump over the fence and there’s Smokie. Then I started yelling, “Smokie, Smokie,” he told the local television news station.

The 55-year-old woman was letting her dog Smokie walk. She heard a commotion and knew the Pomeranian was in danger.

Galante said the bear charged at her and knocked her to the ground.

“She came after me and pushed me down, and my face hit the cement,” Galante said in an emotional interview from his hospital bed, showing cuts on his nose and just above his lip.

“Then he grabbed me by the back of my neck and pulled so hard I thought I was going to be scalped,” he added.

Galante said the bear kept shifting its attention from her to her eight-pound Pomeranian and bit her arm during the attack.

“She was very, very powerful and very, very angry,” Galante told CBS News.

Galante and Smokie managed to return to her house from a back porch where she crawled to a telephone and dialed 911.

Galante was hospitalized and received dozens of surgical staples in the back of her head.

“He has a good number of puncture wounds on the back of his neck, on his arm and pretty significant tears and lacerations on his scalp. And he also has several broken bones in his nose and face,” said Dr. Jennifer Chen, AHN trauma surgeon.

The mother bear and her three cubs were located in a tree in the area after the attack.

Galante’s backyard. Galante then saw the silhouette of three bear cubs in a neighbor’s tree before his angry mother appeared on the scene.

One of the bears in a tree after the attack. The mother bear continued to be aggressive and was euthanized by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The cubs have been tranquilized and are expected to be released to an unknown location.

The mother bear remained aggressive and was euthanized by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The cubs have been tranquilized and are expected to be released to an unknown location.

One of her neighbors, Michael Vero, said “it was stressful hearing her scream” during the attack, noting that the bears had been in the area for a few weeks and he was worried for his children’s safety.

—Then I was nervous; Now that they’re out of here, it makes me feel a little better,” he said.

The Game Commission said the bear was probably protecting her cubs and was hungry.