A family out fishing in a boat on a Wisconsin lake ended up coming to the rescue of a bear swimming with a plastic jug stuck over its head.
Brian Hurt said he was fishing with his wife, Tricia, and son, Brady, on Marshmiller Lake, near Bloomer, when they noticed what they had initially thought to be a floating log was a swimming animal.
“We thought it was a black lab in the water and had a jug on its head,” Brian Hurt told KARE-TV. “Then as we got closer my wife is like, ‘No, that looks like a bear.’”
Hurt said the young bear seemed disoriented and likely had its vision obscured by the large plastic jar on its head.
Tricia Hurt filmed video as her husband attempted to pull the jug from the bear’s head. He said the first attempt failed when his hands slipped from the wet jug, but on the second attempt he was able to pull it free, allowing the bear to swim away unencumbered.
“Once I got it off you could really tell the difference, because, it was like, it could get proper air at that point,” Brian Hurt said, “and it seemed like it revived quite a bit.”