By Ken Meaney, Canwest News ServiceFebruary 18, 2009
It wasn't until he hit the polar bear with a shovel that Ed Dyson felt he was in any danger.
The massive animal stopped and glared up at him an arm's length away, Dyson recalled Wednesday.
"I didn't like the look he gave me, to tell you the truth," he said with a chuckle. "He was quite a big bear. I'd say he weighed a good 1,000 pounds."
The bear had ambled up Tuesday as Dyson watched from his porch in Black Tickle, in southern Labrador.
Metres from Dyson, it grabbed his small dog and tossed it in the air, he said.
"When the dog landed, he ran under the (porch) and the bear tried to get at him . . . so then I had a smack at him with the shovel. But that didn't stop him much," he said.
Dyson said he got his rifle and fired into the ground, but the bear still wouldn't budge. "He just more or less looked at me, so I fired at him again, and that time I nicked him."
Dyson said it took one more shot from the low-calibre weapon, hitting the bear in the side, to force it away.
His dog, a small beagle-cross, wasn't harmed, Dyson said. As for the bear, others told him they saw it later entering the ocean.
Polar bears are frequent visitors to Black Tickle, Dyson said, but they usually aren't a danger.
"I've seen bears before — but not a bear so close as that. If I had a mind to reach down I could have put my hand on it."
Dyson has told his tale to wildlife officers. Calls for comment were not returned Wednesday.
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