Bear attacks llama in northern NJ

BLAIRSTOWN — A woman in northern New Jersey saved one of her llamas from a bear attack and broke her toe in the process. Lydia Chiappini was asleep in her home that she shares with her mother when she awoke to the screams of her llama "Gus" being mauled early Sunday. Chiappini told The Express-Times of Easton, Pa., she found Gus in the vegetable garden and a dark shape biting his head. The bear ran away after she first screamed at it. But Chiappini said the bruin returned while she called 911 and began chasing Gus, one of her 10 llamas. Chiappini told the newspaper she got between Gus and the bear and stood her ground. "The bear kept coming at me and I kept yelling at him, `Get out of here!'" "It was probably kind of stupid," she said, "but they're like your kids, you know?" State troopers arrived and told Chiappini she was covered in blood, she said. The blood was from her llama. A trooper shot and killed the bear, police said. "He came back and said, `That was the most aggressive bear I ever saw,'" Chiappini said. Chiappini is treating the llama with antibiotics and recovering after she broke her toe. "I had a hissy fit and kicked the bear in the head," Chiappini said.