Mama Bear Put Down After Attacking Woman Walking Dogs In Florida

A black bear was put down after the animal attacked a Florida woman walking her pet dogs.

The woman, who was identified only by her first name, Aydee, was walking her pets Thursday evening when she was attacked by the bear protecting her three cubs. The animal chased the woman and tackled her by the street.

"I took off running… and then, she was running behind me. She grabbed me by my shoulder, and I fell to the ground," Aydee told Hawaii News Now.

The woman suffered injuries to her face and scratches on her back and hands. She was rushed to a local hospital where she received several stitches.

"The worst [experience] of my life… Like, you go through stuff in life, but this is like the worst. No. 1, I would say. I feel lucky to be alive," she told the outlet.

The dogs were not injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, the neighbors told the outlet before attacking Aydee, the bear came down from a pine tree and aggressively stared at a couple walking across the street.

"The bear came down because she had… cubs, came down [and] went after her. He scared the bear away from her, and then… the bear ran that way and attacked the lady," Austin Kennedy, a neighbor, told the outlet.

The following day, the officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) found the bear in a nearby tree, tranquilized it and put it down.

"Unfortunately, the neighbor got scratched up by the bear. She’s fortunate to be alive, I guess, but as far as euthanizing it, why not relocate it?" neighbor David Mangham said.

Fish and Wildlife officers say the decision was taken as the animal was a risk to people living in the neighborhood.

"We can’t have bears living in neighborhoods that are willing to hurt somebody. We just can’t allow it," Davis Telesco, the FWC’s bear management program coordinator, told the outlet.

Officers did not capture the three bear cubs as they "were old enough to survive on their own," FWC said in a statement, ABC Action News reported.