The guys in the local fishing and hunting/gun shop at Warshall's in
downtown Seattle recommend to their customers to buy pepper spray to
stop a bear, and discourage customers from buying a gun just for that
purpose. They said one is more likely to survive a bear attack using
the spray rather than anything else.

Franny Drobny
Seattle, WA
fdrobny at cairncross.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Don Baccus [SMTP:dhogaza at pacifier.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 1998 2:08 PM
> To: johns at ohsu.EDU; tweeters post
> Subject: Re: bears and bells
>
> At 01:47 PM 2/20/98 PST, John Shelton - ext. 4051 wrote:
> > Does anyone
> >actually believe that one could stop a charging bear with pepper
> spray?
>
> Yes, I do. I know a photographer who put down a moose that had pinned
> a
> rather stupid Yellowstone tourist against a tree with a blast of
> pepper
> spray to the nose. Bull moose during rutting season can be awfully
> nasty.
>
> Pepper spray is effective, and the biologist who has come up with the
> information that bears find capsicum as tasty as you and I still
> carries
> it in the field.
>
>
> - Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
> Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
> http://donb.photo.net