‘This might be it’: Woman walking her dog survives sudden bear attack

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) - A woman in Virginia is grateful after she survived being attacked by a bear while she was walking her dog.

Wendy Cowan was walking her dog Ripley near her mother’s farm in Lunenburg County on Oct. 5, 2023, when a bear emerged from the woods.

In the moment, Cowan did all she could to scare the bear away.

“With all my knowledge of black bears, I thought I need to scare this bear away, so I was making a lot of noise, screaming,” she said.

As Cowan took action, the bear attacked her.

“I was just making a lot of noise, and as they ran by me, the bear took a bite in my leg,” she said. “I tried to go towards a field and I think she started jumping on my back, I think she was attacking me from behind.”

As Cowan started crawling away, she said the bear started going after her arms and head.

Cowan tried to hide under some debris and crawled into a ball until the bear left.

“There was a moment where I thought, you know, this might be it, but there was a calmness there, I didn’t feel agitated,” she said.

Using every bit of her strength, Cowan crawled towards the corn fields and found her phone to call her mom’s neighbor for help.

“They came to find me in the cornfield and at that point, nobody’s cellphone was working,” Cowan said. “There was just not a signal, so Connie drove and called Victoria Fire and Rescue.”

That’s when Chelsea Mayton and Johnny Crenshaw, from Victoria Fire and Rescue, were called in.

“We heard ‘bear attack,’ and I remember looking at Johnny and being like, ‘Did I hear her right, did she say bear attack?’” Mayton said. “As soon as Johnny and I approach her, we realize the amount of blood she was starting to lose along with the severity of her injuries.”

Mayton said the decision was made to have Cowan flown to a hospital.

Doctors checked Cowan up and determined she had suffered multiple wounds and fractures on her neck and shoulder, and nerve damage from her hip to her knee.

“I have a scar running from here to here, which I can feel,” said Cowan while describing the injury on her head.

For Cowan, the scars serve as a reminder of her miraculous survival as she continues to recover.

“This bear has given me so many gifts in so many ways,” she said. “The other gift that the bear gave me is knowing that I’m not a victim and I can get over this and I can be better than I was and so, I mean, I can’t complain about this, I mean I’m sore and I can’t make it through the work day quite like I used to yet, but I will. But it’s thanks to all these people that came to my aid.”

Cowan was reunited with the first responders who saved her life last week.

She was surrounded by the first responders inside the Virginia State Police Aviation Hangar at the Chesterfield County Airport, where she shared her gratitude for their care and swift action.

“I wanted to thank them for saving my life and let them know how incredible they all are,” said Cowan.

The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources was also called to the scene of the attack and said the bear was euthanized.

Cowan was also told she took all of the appropriate steps to try to scare the bear away and the bear’s behavior in attacking was very unusual.

If anyone encounters a bear while in nature, experts said it is important to be aware of your surroundings and to keep bear spray on your person and any dogs on a leash.

More tips when encountering bears can be found on the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources’ website.