A teenager fearlessly pushed away a large bear confronting her family dogs from the top of their backyard wall in California.
Hailey Morinico, 17, ran outside and scared off the mother bear before rounding up the pets and heading back inside her home in Bradbury, east of Los Angeles.
Dramatic surveillance video aired by the ABC 7 television station shows the animal perched on top of the wall, swatting at a large black dog on the ground. Two bear cubs are seen behind their mother while four smaller dogs bark and dart around the yard.
Morinico sprints toward the bear, uses both hands to push the large bear off the wall and picks up one of the smaller dogs. She and the other dogs then run out of the video frame.
The bears disappear over a wall into a neighbour’s yard.
The news station reported that the teenager suffered a small scratch, but she and all of the dogs were okay.
In a TikTok video recounting the event, Hailey said: “The bear is literally picking up one of my dogs. Her name is Valentina, she is the baby, and as her slave, I have to protect her.”
Hailey’s mother, Citlally Morinico, posted video of Monday’s incident on Facebook. She described it as “one of the scariest moments in my life”.
