For many dog owners, their furry four-legged friends aren’t just pets, but they are family members, kids that you need to take care of and protect. They are prepared to go above and beyond to do that, even to fight a bear, if it comes to that. And I’m not even exaggerating.
Recently a video went viral which shows a teenage girl literally pushing a bear with two cubs, as if one bear wasn't enough, from her backyard fence when she saw the bear and her dogs fighting. The video was shared all over social media and it was viewed 64 million times on TikTok. Well, it is certainly an event that you don’t see every day.
A courageous 17-year-old pushed a bear from her backyard fence when she saw it started picking up her dog
Image credits: bakedlikepie
The video footage is from a surveillance camera in the backyard. The clip shows a bear standing on the backyard fence with its babies. The family dogs, as the good boys and girls they are, show up to bark at the intruder.
Then a girl rushes in and goes straight to the bear and just pushes it from the fence. The bear falls off but climbs up again and the teen takes her little dog in her hands and escapes the scene.
The girl in question is Hailey Morinico from Southern California and the viral video was posted by her cousin Brenda. After the video blew up, a follow-up video showed up on Brenda’s TikTok account where Hailey explained what happened.
Hailey heard her dogs barking and went to look what was up, and that was when she saw the bear
Image credits: bakedlikepie
The dogs started barking, which is normal as her dogs are frequently barking at other animals, but nevertheless, Hailey went to look at what the commotion was all about. She says that when she went out, her first thought was, “That’s a funny-looking dog!” But she quickly realized that it was a bear and that it was taking one of her dogs off the ground.
Then the best solution seemed to be just to push the bear. Hailey said that she didn’t push it that hard, just so it would lose its balance and she scrammed from there with one of her dogs in her arms.
Thankfully, all the dogs are fine. Hailey herself sprained her finger and has a bruised knee, but that’s it. People were asking about the neighbor’s dog in the comments and Hailey reassured everyone that the neighbor’s dogs also weren’t hurt because the bear then went in the direction of the street, where her cubs were.
Image credits: bakedlikepie
The dogs were barking at the bear and the bear, having two cubs with it, was fighting back
Image credits: bakedlikepie
Hailey lives in the mountains and according to her, it is very normal to see bears coming to people’s houses; in the summer, they come all the time. One person was worried about the bear, as it could be put down for being dangerous, but in this situation the mom was just protecting her cubs. The teen confirmed that the bear is also okay and that “she comes around all the time and they’re usually pretty chill.”
Bored Panda got in touch with the girl that a lot of people are now calling a hero and she told us that bears are a usual occurrence and that they get to see them just a couple of feet away while being inside.
There is not much one can do to prevent bears from coming in. According to Hailey, "People always lock their doors and close garages but really there’s not too much you can do to protect your yard. You can protect yourself by running away or scaring them off with noise."
Hailey rushed in and the first thing she came up with was just to push the bear and it miraculously worked
Image credits: bakedlikepie
Image credits: bakedlikepie
Hailey’s cousin Brenda, who posted the video that went viral, told Buzzfeed that Hailey loves her dogs very much, but the family immediately warned her to never do such a thing again. The girl’s mom was mortified when she saw the video. She told abc7, "I just break down every time I see (it). It's just horrifying to watch."
We asked what Hailey thinks when she looks at the video herself and she answered, "When I look at the footage I’m just astonished by what I did and how fast everything went. Even when I watch it back now I notice something new and it’s just wild seeing it all play out."
At the end no one got seriously hurt and Hailey became the internet's hero
Image credits: bakedlikepie
As mentioned, the video was viewed over 60 million times, and that's more than the population of Italy. It definitely made Hailey internet famous and she said, "It’s been overwhelming dealing with the media but the people who message me calling me a hero are really heartwarming and I love seeing all the people sticking around for me as a person."
Nobody was expecting for the video to pick up like this: "I thought it would be a small joke between my family and friends, but it just blew up overnight."
And if you would like to stick around for Hailey, her TikTok is @tempurashrimp and you can follow on her Instagram too, which is @bittersweet.brat.
Hailey understands that she was lucky this time getting away safely and she would never do this again
Image credits: bakedlikepie
What Hailey did was very dangerous and she was extremely lucky to have gotten away just with a few scratches, especially because the bear had cubs with her. Wildlife experts strongly recommend not to approach bears and to stay safely inside. And if you are aware that you live in an area where there are bears around, it’s a good idea to not let pets stay outside by themselves.
Hailey is not encouraging this behavior; in fact, she said that she knows what wildlife experts say and would never do this again.
People in the comments were amazed how everything turned out and were joking that the girl is even more dangerous than the bear
