Family rescues baby bear with plastic tub stuck on face

‘We’re just so fortunate we could help him’, said Wisconsin woman who videoed the rescue

A young bear was saved from drowning in a lake when a family spotted it getting into difficulties.

Tricia Hurt and her husband Brian Hurt had been boating with their son, Brady, on Marsh Miller Lake in Wisconsin on Saturday when they spotted the young bear in the water.

The bear, who was seen with a plastic tub stuck on its head, had been struggling to swim as water filled the container.

Ms Hurt directed her 26-year-old son to steer their boat nearer to the animal, so that her 52-year-old husband could reach-out and pull the plastic tub from the bear’s head as they passed.

“He’s getting scared”, she could be heard saying in a video shared online. “[We’re] trying to figure out how we’re going to get this tub off his head.”

The couple and their son then circled the bear, who was panicked, but they could not pull the tub from its head on their first attempt.

“I had the damn thing”, said Mr Hurt in the video, as his son circled the boat once more around the bear.

He was then able to pull the tub from the bear’s head on the second attempt, as the boat passed close to the bear in the water.

Ms Hurt could be heard celebrating that “We saved our little bear”, as the animal swam out into the lake moments later.

“We couldn’t believe it when we saw the cheese puffs container wedged on the poor bear’s head,” Ms Hurt told Kennedy News and Media. “You can’t tell how a wild animal will react, even if you are trying to save its life, but we had to get over that fear and help him out.”

“We were just so happy when we finally got him loose and he made it back to the shore.” she continued. “When it was on dry land, it just collapsed from pure exhaustion.”

The bear was reported to have been stuck with the tub on its head for almost four days, before the Hurts rescued the animal.

“Nobody could get near to him so we’re just so fortunate we could help him,” added Ms Hurt.

She posted the video online on Facebook on Sunday, where it has now had more than 1.2m views.