Teen Who Pushed Bear To Protect Dogs Speaks Out: ‘I Couldn’t Bear To Lose Her Or Have Anything Happen To Her’

The teen who confronted a bear to protect her dogs is speaking about the incident.

This week, 17-year-old Hailey Morinico went viral after video footage showed her push a bear off a ledge to protect her dogs. The video starts with a mother bear walking her two cubs through the girl’s backyard in Bradbury, California. That’s when the girl’s dogs start barking at the bear. The video then shows the girl running outside and pushing the bear off a ledge as the bear tried to attack the dogs.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, there is a bear, and it is taking my dog,” she told Gadi Schwartz on TODAY Wednesday. “It is lifting her off the ground, and if I don’t do something about it, who knows what might happen to her.” The bear, at one point, was able to swipe one of the smaller dogs with her paw. “She’s the baby in the family we go everywhere with her, (I) couldn’t bear to lose her or have anything happen to her,” Morinico said.

After shoving the bear, she immediately scooped up one of the smaller dogs and hurried out and away from the bear’s presence. The footage from the entire incident was posted on Facebook with the caption, “My child Hailey Moriniconiconii just saved our dog with superhuman strength. For me, one of the scariest moments in life.”

In a TikTok video, the teen re-explained what happened. “So I go over to the bear. I look at it in the eyes, and the first thing I think to do is push it,” she said in the video. “Push a bear, push an apex predator, man. And to be honest, I don’t think I pushed her that hard; I just pushed her enough to make her lose her balance. So she drops my dog, and I run out of there.” The teen was not severely harmed; she said she only obtained a sprained index finger on her right hand as well as a minor knee injury.