International News Coverage.

Nevermind the wars, drought, famine and pestilence...

Here is some local news, from my big backyard, that drew international attention:

Black bear with head stuck in bucket rescued by lumberjack with amazing crane grabber skills
The drama unfolded in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, USA, where the logger drove his tractor across a farmer's field to rescue the stranded beast.

Yeah, baby!

Here is that story in the Daily Mirror:

YouTube footage shows him lowering his log grabber - remarkably similar to a funfair arcade game - and trying to latch onto the milk churn stuck on the frustrated bear's head. It takes only two or three attempts to grab the can successfully and raise it - almost lifting the bear off the ground.

With its front paws pushing as well, the bear's head pops out seconds later and it scampers for cover in a nearby wood...

and from the Eau Claire paper, closer to home:

{Garrett] Smith spotted the bear struggling in a cornfield on Dennis West’s rural Rice Lake farm while logging in the woods on a hot, muggy June 22. Smith called West to inform him of the situation.

“He said I should take my machine out there to see if I could get the milk can off,” Smith said. “I was thinking the same thing, but I didn’t want to run over his corn.”


After a few attempts, Smith was able to grab the can with the grappling hooks and pull it off. The bear ran off to the woods but paused for a moment and looked back at Smith, as if to say thank you, Smith said.

Smith said he wouldn’t have attempted to remove the milk can if he thought it was going to injure the bear further.

“If we couldn’t get to him, we wouldn’t have stayed after him,” Smith said of the struggling bear, noting it took a lot of force to remove the milk can due to the bear’s swollen neck. “I think he knew I was there to help him.”

West doesn’t know where the old milk can, which weighed about 30 pounds, came from, but believes there was a dead mouse inside, which attracted the bear. “He must have wanted a better look at it,” West said. “Curiosity just about got him.”

West said he wasn’t concerned about the crops and just wanted to help set the bear free. He noted bears do plenty of damage to farm fields.

“We saved him, but he’ll probably be back in a couple months to wreck our crops,” West said with a chuckle. “Hopefully some of those crops will come back, but at the time we had to save the bear.”

Here's the YouTube video.