Man Survives Black Bear Mauling, Receives 300 Stitches

Joe Azougar, 30, was sitting on the front porch of his cabin in northern Ontario with his new German Shepherd Ace when the two of them were charged by a black bear.

Ace, though young, immediately jumped at the chance to save his master.

“I heard howling and barking,” Azougar told ABC.

The puppy was no match, however, and as Azougar looked back as he ran into his home he saw the bear drag his dog lifeless into a bush.

Frightened, Azougar began to call his neighbors to alert them of what had happened when the bear, “thirsty for blood,” came back for him.

Azougar began throwing things at the bear and making loud sounds. He even climbed up on a chair so as to appear bigger.

“This beast wanted to destroy,” Azougar said told the news outelt. “I figured my best chance was to run outside by the street so that someone could find me.”

However, he didn’t get very far before the bear caught up with him.

“He had four paws on top of me … he peeled my forehead skin to the back of my head off,” Azougar said, saying that he could feel the animal’s teeth on his skull.

“Then, he turned me over and tried to bit my stomach and hips,” he continued. “That gave me just a few seconds to curl into a ball and protect my head, which exposed my arm pits and shoulder blades.”

At that point, Azougar said he started kicking and punching the bear, eventually managing to hit it in the eye.

The bear didn’t seem to notice, however, as it proceeded to drag Azougar’s body into a ditch.

“By that time I could feel my body become lifeless,” he said of the experience.

Azougar’s decision to run to the road, however, proved to be lifesaving: two women who saw the mauling scared the bear off with their horn and drove him to the hospital where he received 300 stitches.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the bear was shot and killed and has been submitted for testing to determine whether it had some kind of disease.

“I am just thankful to those two angels that saved me,” Azougar said. “I am thankful to the Almighty for giving me this life.”