Man Dies Attempting Selfie With Bear, Stray Dog Tried To Save Him
INDIA (CBS Local) - A man was mauled to death by a bear after he reportedly tried to take a selfie with the animal, according to reports.
It happened in the Nabarangpur district of Odisha in India. Prabhu Bhatara spotted the injured animal on his way home from a wedding. He ignored advice from friends who told him it wasn't a good idea to take a selfie with the bear.
It didn't take long, according to The Independent, for the bear to strike once Bhatara was close. The incident was recorded on a cell phone, with the gruesome footage going viral after hitting the internet.
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A stray dog also stepped in and bit the bear but its intervention failed to deter the larger animal. Forest ranger Dhanurjaya Mohapatra said Bhatara "died on the spot."
He added: "The bear is being treated for its injuries."
Selfies with bears became something of a trend in 2014 – so much so that the US Forest Service was forced to warn people not to get so close to the animals, according to paper.
Even organized animal selfies are dangerous – but not necessarily for the humans involved. Activists have warned that in some popular holiday destinations, animals like monkeys, tigers, and elephants are being abused.
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"The irony is that people usually take these photos because they love animals," Chiara Vitali, of World Animal Protection, told The Independent last year. "But behind that selfie there's often a lot of abuse. If you're having a picture taken with a tiger cub, chances are that it's been dragged out like a prop then taken back to its cage at night when tigers should be allowed to roam. To get that picture of a lifetime, it might have taken a lifetime of animal cruelty."
[H/T CBS DFW]
