A 30-year-old man is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by a bear on Saturday outside his home in northern Ontario.
Joe Azougar, who had just moved to Cochrane, Ont., a small town northeast of Timmins, said the bear approached without warning.
"Out of nowhere, this bear came just charging," Azougar told CTV Northern Ontario. "(My) German shepherd jumped on him and they started wrestling so I go back in my house and start making a few phone calls and making noises and things like that so he would disappear."
But despite Azougar’s efforts, the bear did not leave and ended up chasing him about 40 metres to a nearby road. Azougar said the bear dragged him by the head into the bushes.
"Literally from my head, the skin that's hanging off, he had it in his mouth and he's dragging me," he said. "I knew I was going to die that minute. That was the end of me. That’s it."
Azougar was saved when two women, who were camping nearby, spotted the terrifying attack and scared the animal away.
"Out of nowhere, these two ladies, two angels, show up in a car and the bear just runs away," Azougar said.
The two women drove Azougar to a hospital. He suffered extensive lacerations on the back of his head, left shoulder and his back where the bear had grabbed him.
"If it wasn’t for them, my family would be attending my funeral today, probably, so thank you for saving my life," he said.
Police and officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed the bear was found and killed hours after the attack.
With a report from CTV Northern Ontario’s Joey Slattery
