A northern Marinette County man is recovering from a black bear attack. Gerre Ninnemann was attacked by the bear Wednesday afternoon outside of his Town of Silver Cliff home. The juvenile black bear first went after the family’s dog. Ninnemann intervened and was chased down and attacked as he tried to run into his home. Ninnemann and his wife, Marie, eventually managed to fight the bear off and a responding Marinette County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed the animal.
“We get calls, especially this time of year, where a bear will be either a nuisance or won’t leave, and people are concerned,” said Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve. “We can show up an sometimes blow the horn or ‘blurp’ the siren, and they take off running. But this is very unusual that the bear would be this aggressive.”
Gerre Ninnemann suffered bite wounds and was taken to Bay Area Medical Center for treatment. The DNR plans to test the bear for rabies. According to the incident report, Marie Ninnemann struck the bear with an unloaded gun.
Ken Conners, WGAN