Peter Shumlin, Vermont governor, narrowly escapes bear attack

GlobalPost

And then again sometimes the bear actually doesn’t get you.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said today he had narrowly escaped the clutches of four bears that crept into his backyeard in the middle of the night, according to The Associated Press.

The first-term Democrat, 56, did not clarify whether he was naked at the time, according to the news agency.

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The governor said the bears were trying to eat seed from birdfeeders and that, when he tried to shoo them off, one chased and nearly caught him.

"I had a close encounter with a bear, four bears to be exact," Shumlin was quoted as saying, telling the Lebanon Valley News editorial board that he was within “three feet of getting ‘arrrh.’"

Shumlin told the Valley News, “You almost lost the governor.”

After being woken by the bears’ carousing, the governor went out to collect the birdfeeders when he noticed that “one of the bigger bears was interested in me,” according to the AP.

“It was probably six feet from me before I slammed the door and it ran the other way."

"I sleep like many Vermont boys, without too much clothing at night. I'm not a big pajama person," he said.

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Shumlin said that “like many Vermony boys” he was not a “big pajama person” but he did not reveal how little he was wearing, according to the AP.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife urges homeowners to remove birdfeeders in the spring, according to the AP.

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