Bear cub playfully nibbles on woman’s face after detecting a fishy scent: Incident occurs at a Russian park following her consumption of a salmon salad.
This is the agonising moment a performing brown bear cub bites the chin of a young woman with a ‘death grip’ after she had just eaten a salmon salad .
The beast was with its owner who was using it as a real-life prop to entice passersby to pay to take photos when the woman in the video, Madina, sat down for a picture.
The hungry cub clambered over to her with seemingly endearing curiosity as Madina smiled and welcomed its sniffing licks at a main park in the Russian city of Grozny.
But the bear cub could ‘smell the salmon salad’ she had just eaten and in a moment of unexpected ferocity lunged forwards and sank its teeth into her chin.
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‘The poor animal was hungry,’ she said afterwards. ‘The little bear climbed up to me, crying.
‘When he got close to my face, I wanted to remove him, but due to hunger, his reflex kicked in and he clenched his teeth on my chin.
‘They couldn’t take him away from me.’
The camera caught the moment of the vicious bite.
‘They have a death grip,’ she said. ‘The owner herself could not do anything. My sister and I tore it off me.
‘There was a lot of blood where he bit me. They thought at first he had taken a mouthful of my flesh.’
Park-goers rushed to help Madina as she waited for an ambulance. ‘They reacted so quickly,’ she said.
Madina was given injections for rabies and tetanus, but suffered no permanent damage.
After leaving hospital, she registered a complaint with the police. The video – filmed by her sister – is now the key evidence.
‘The owner of the animal blamed me, saying I provoked the bear, but the video shows this is not the case,’ she said.
‘The bear also bit a policeman’s hand. He, too, was given an injection. The little bear was hungry.
‘He was fed baby formula. But feeding such animals food for children is wrong.
‘They should have other food, but it is expensive, and the owner wants to earn money with the bear.
‘It was not fed properly, and without a muzzle.’
The bear has not been put into care in the zoo and taken away from the woman who said she paid £185 for it.
Madina has offered to pay for food for the bear.
She rejected a plea from the owner to withdraw her complaint.
‘I am against torturing animals,’ she said.
