By Antonio Planas -
NBC News
A Pennsylvania woman who was attacked by a bear while letting her dog out said it was a miracle she survived the encounter in her backyard Tuesday night.
“I kept thinking: 'I can't believe this is happening.
This can not be happening'.
I'm being attacked by a bear,” Lee Ann Galante, 55, said Wednesday from Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
“I thought it was over, that I was going to die.”
Galante claimed that before the attack, his neighbors in Butler Township had captured a
mother bear and her cubs
on cameras in their home and that the animals had earlier gotten into his bird feeder.
But it had been weeks since the bears had been seen, Galante explained.
Ann Galante.WPXI
Then, on Tuesday, Galante saw a black bear up close.
Galante was home alone with her beloved Pomenarian, Smokie, when she walked out with the 8-pound (2.5-kilogram) dog.
She recounted that she heard Smokie causing a commotion, she looked out and saw the silhouette of three sizable bear cubs in a neighbor's tree.
What he saw next was even more terrifying, according to Galante.
“In the dark, I saw a big bear jump over the fence and there was Smokie.
So I started yelling, 'Smokie, Smokie.'"
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The bear pounced on her and knocked her face down on the cement.
“He bit me so hard on the back of my neck that
I thought he was going to scalp me
,” Galante said.
According to Galante, the bear kept diverting attention to her dog and managed to get close to Smokie again, before lunging at Galante, knocking her to the ground and biting her left arm.
Galante and Smokie managed to enter the house from a back terrace.
She claimed that she crawled to a phone and called 911.
He listed his injuries: dozens of stitches on the back of his head, a broken nose, cuts on the inside of his mouth, puncture wounds on his arm, and
scratches and scrapes everywhere
.
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She was initially treated for her injuries at Butler Memorial Hospital, Butler Township police said in a statement.
After the attack, the mother bear and her three cubs were found in a nearby tree, police said.
“The female bear continued her aggression,” police said, prompting the Pennsylvania Game Commission to euthanize her.
The Game Commission used tranquilizers on the bear cubs, according to police, and they are expected to be released at an undisclosed location.
Butler is about 56 miles north of Pittsburgh.
Galante stated that Smokie managed to escape with only scratches on his back.
“He kept distracting her [the bear].
“I am very grateful that he was not seriously injured,” she said.
Galante noted that she and Smokie are lucky to still be together, considering the bear's strength and temperament.
“She was very aggressive and very strong
,” Galante said.
"It was horrible".