Sometimes, dogs are much more powerful protectors than we give them credit for. A family’s husky chased a black bear out of a Torrington, Connecticut, backyard after the bear charged toward a young boy, in an encounter recorded on the homeowner’s surveillance camera. No one was hurt. The homeowner, Jeff Tazzara, posted the video on July 5, and it drew wider attention after WFSB reported on it.
The footage shows the bear moving toward the boy in the yard. The husky ran in and cut between the boy and the bear. The dog drove the bear off, and it left the property. No injuries were reported.
Tazzara said the husky was given a T-bone steak as a reward. He shared the clip on social media, where it spread before local coverage picked it up. The video adds to a run of bear encounters recorded in Connecticut backyards this year.
Torrington is in the part of the state where some bear sightings are most common. State wildlife officials have spent months urging residents to remove the food sources that pull bears into neighborhoods. The Torrington video, along with a separate case in the same city days later, shows how close those encounters can get.
How Common Bear Encounters Have Become in Connecticut
Black bears were wiped out of Connecticut by the mid-1800s and began returning in the 1980s, with the population climbing quickly since the early 2000s. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) says bear sightings have now been reported in all 169 of the state’s towns and cities. Human-bear conflicts have followed a decade-long upward trend, and in 2025, bears entered or broke into homes in 18 Connecticut municipalities.
The northwest corner of the state, which includes Torrington, leads Connecticut in bear sightings. Torrington alone logged 58 sightings by mid-April of this year, according to state data. The risk to pets is real: a day after the husky video circulated, WFSB reported that a Torrington man’s beagle was attacked by a black bear while trying to protect its owner.
What Should You Do If a Bear Comes Into Your Yard?
State wildlife officials say the instinct to run from a bear is the wrong one. DEEP advises people to make their presence known by shouting, clapping, or waving their arms, then to back away slowly without turning to run. The agency also tells residents not to approach a bear for a photo or video and to keep dogs under control during an encounter.
Most conflicts trace back to food, so DEEP urges residents to take down bird feeders, secure trash, and bring pet food indoors, since a bear that finds an easy meal tends to return. Officials caution against counting on a dog to drive a bear off, because a pet that confronts a bear can be hurt, as the Torrington beagle was.
In the husky’s case, the encounter ended with no injuries and a steak, though wildlife experts would still rather see families remove the attractants and keep a safe distance than depend on a lucky outcome.