Vermont Woman Mauled by Bear in Her Backyard While Letting Dog Out: 'It Was Terrifying'

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A woman was mauled by a bear in Vermont after she let her Shih Tzu out of the house late Wednesday night.

Sarah Dietl, 43, recalls letting her dog out before 10 p.m. in Winhall, when it chased a bear cub up a tree, prompting its mother bear to attack. "She came running out of the dark. She ran right to me," Dietl told the Brattleboro Reformer Thursday after being hospitalized. "It was terrifying."

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Fellow homeowner Robert Montuoro said the bear was close enough to the door that he was able to hit the animal in the head with a flashlight. The bear soon let go of Dietl, but the fight wasn't over.

"Once I pulled Sarah into the house, the bear charged the door," Montouro told the publication, adding that he was terrified but slammed the door in its face.

Dietl received 15 staples in her scalp from the Southern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, and ended up with a "mangled hand" as well as cuts to her face and a gash in her side, per the Reformer.

Col. Justin Stedman, warden director of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, told the publication that bear sightings in Vermont are "the highest level than we've ever had" compared to previous years.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for additional comment regarding the attack.

"Before letting pets out at night, I would urge Vermonters to light their yards and make plenty of noise to allow wildlife in the area time to move on," Kyle Isherwood, a game warden, said in a statement the Reformer. "Along with securing food that could attract wildlife into a developed area, steps like this are important for the safety of people and wildlife."

File: Getty Black bear

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Several factors contribute to bear sightings in Vermont, the department shared, including population increase, a lack of rain limiting natural foods, and unseasonable temperatures in the fall.

The attack, which took place at a condominium complex in Winhall, wasn't the only recent incident, either. Bears have also been spotted in nearby neighborhoods eating ornamental pumpkins, Isherwood shared.

"Bears are intelligent creatures," Stedman said. "They learn to associate people with food, because folks want to feed the birds, or they they want to put their garbage out. They don't want to worry about it. These sort of things habituate bears to people, and it compounds over time."

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Thankfully for Dietl, who officials say was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, her dog Bodhi returned home unscathed the following morning. Game wardens searched the surrounding area for the cubs and mother bear until 1:20 a.m. Wednesday night, and resumed their search Thursday.

Wardens and biologists found that a female bear had been seen regularly in the area with cubs in the summer and fall, and that decorative pumpkins and other things had shown signs they were eaten by bears.

"We really feel lucky to live where live here in Vermont," Montouro said. "We build condos in places where bears used to live, and we're kicking them out. It's not their fault."

As for the commonality of bear attacks in the area, they're rare, but Jaclyn Comeau, black bear project leader for the department, said residents should take "every step" necessary to prevent attracting them.

"Increasingly bold and high-risk behavior from bears is due to Vermonters' failure to take the proactive steps needed for safely coexisting alongside a healthy black bear population," Comeau said in a statement to the Reformer.