A judge sentenced three Seminole County residents Friday to 6 months’ probation for feeding bears near the Lake Mary neighborhood where a black bear attacked a woman in April.
Eugene D. Cifers, 63, of Lake Mary, pleaded guilty and Corey D. Zeak, 28, and Lori E. Clem, 29, of Longwood, pleaded no contest to intentionally feeding bears and other wildlife in the area. The charges are second-degree misdemeanors. The three must also pay $200 to the Wildlife Alert Program of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and perform 25 hours of community service.
“People who feed bears don’t realize the serious results of their actions,” said FWC
Bear Management Program Coordinator Dave Telesco. “Feeding bears may reduce their natural fear of people, which can lead to someone getting seriously injured and bears being killed.”
More than a half dozen bears were killed by wildlife officials after the mid-April attack of 45-year-old Terri Frana. She told Orlando television station WFTV on Wednesday that residents of her Lake Mary neighborhood need to understand the danger from bears.
“We need to learn to expect them at some point,” she said.
In the moments before her attack, Frana said, there were five bears in her yard, including two that were eating out of trash cans in front of her house.
One of those bears attacked her when she went outside to yell to her children to come back inside the house after they had gone to a neighbor’s house. The children returned to the house unharmed.
Frana said the bear pushed her down, bit her leg and then bit into her skull, trying to drag her into the woods. She ran inside her house, calling her escape “a miracle.” The bear charged at the screen door but was scared off by barking from her dog.
Frana’s fall from the bear attack jarred her cellphone into calling her husband, who didn’t answer the phone. The voicemail message captured audio of Frana’s screams from the attack.
“Those teeth were digging into my skull and I said, ‘Please God, don’t let this be my end,’” she said. “I said, ‘My kids need me. Please spare me.’ And the bear let me go.”