Video: Bear swimming with container stuck on its head is rescued by Wisconsin family
A Wisconsin family boating on a lake reflecting Saturday’s cotton candy skies is seen on video saving a distressed black bear swimming with its head stuck in a plastic container.
Tricia Hurt, her husband and son were on a fishing trip on Marsh-Miller Lake in Chippewa County. The trio was about to head back to shore when they saw a young bear struggling to stay afloat with a water-filled tub on its head, according to Storyful.
In a video posted to Facebook, Hurt’s husband attempts to pull the container off the bear’s head but it slips from his hands. The family turns back around to get behind the bear — seen trying to swim back to shore — and is finally able to tug the container free, video shows.
“We saved our little bear,” Hurt says after the rescue. “Swim happy!”
“Never dreamt we would ever do this in our lifetime,” she wrote on Facebook. “He made it to shore after all that.”
Hurt told CNN and a local news outlet she learned from nearby campers at a resort bar that the bear had been walking around the forested area with its head stuck in the container for three to four days.
People had contacted the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources — but animal authorities had not been able to find the bear “thanks to the rural, wooded landscape,” Hurt told CNN.
“We knew that if we didn’t do something, we are pretty sure it would not have made it to shore,” Hurt told the outlet. “It was really huffing and puffing, my husband said.”
Hurt’s Facebook video has more than 9,000 likes and nearly 2,000 comments from strangers calling the family heroes.
The video has also amassed more than 1 million views since it was posted on Sunday.
“We were so excited! We did our good deed for the day. We will never ever do this again, and it felt good to help the poor bear,” Hurt told the outlet. “You don’t like to see animals struggle.”
