The smokies attack was on a school teacher and happened about five years ago. It is the only person ever killed by a bear in the history of the park which is amazing considering the amount of visitors the park gets and the number of bears.

There was a young girl killed in the Cherokee National Forest last year. The young boy killed in Utah was recent. All that being said, these KY bears appear to be shot for the thrill of it and then dumped elsewhere.

I agree that I would do what I had to do to protect myself and my family, but with the extremely low number of attacks, I don't see the bears as a big threat.

BTW, when they have the first drawing for a KY bear tag, I will be the first in line.