This family got up close and personal with a bear in their own backyard.
And a video making the rounds on social media shows that the “toxic masculinity” progressives complain about can come in handy when it matters.
The footage posted to Facebook on Wednesday reveals a woman walking out of a door to her backyard, seeking the family dog.
“A bear was in our backyard tonight; please be safe and watch your pets,” the post states, without giving a location.
In the video, the woman suddenly screams in a panic as the dog bolts across the lawn.
A running bear soon chases after the pup, providing a full explanation for the woman’s frantic screams.
At one point in the video, two children come outside. A young boy deters the girl from staying outside, recognizing the situation as dangerous.
Would you do this for your dog?
Ultimately, the situation required a little toxic masculinity to save the beloved pet from the bear.
A man came outside in response to uproar.
He reacted to the shocking situation by making aggressive noises at the creature, appearing to successfully scare it off.
The dog escaped inside.
The man might’ve sounded a little ridiculous, but his reaction to the bear was sound.
Wildlife experts recommend making loud noises and sizing up your physical presence in encounters with black bears. (This advice doesn’t apply to encounters with grizzly bears, which are far more dangerous to humans.)
Former professional mixed martial arts fighter, podcaster and Army special forces veteran Tim Kennedy also shared the video on his Instagram account, where he indicated that that growling man is a present or former Army Green Beret, like Kennedy himself.
The bear’s size suggests it’s a black bear, the species most common and wide-ranging in North America.
To bear experts, black bears are only rarely a danger to humans, but it’s quite possible that the small dog was in real danger.
The black bear has a range that spans much of the United States and Canada, according to the North American Bear Center.
A natural scavenger, its talent for obtaining food from what humans have thrown away has enabled it to thrive even near some suburban areas.
