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Zack Keithy, our author, is a certified veterinarian technician (UC Blue Ash) for over 6 years (contact him here). The articles written here are based on his expertise and experience, combined with a review by our expert vet reviewers including Dr M. Tarantino. Learn more about us here.
A seven-and-a-half-year-old French bulldog named Cassie died protecting her owners during a bear attack outside their rural Trinity County, California home early Saturday, September 19, 2026. Jeff and Mallory Wilson, who run a glamping business on the property, were both seriously injured in the attack, according to their friend Marika Judi Graham and a GoFundMe set up on the couple’s behalf.
Cassie had barked and woken Jeff, who let her outside and then went to let her back in. When he stepped out, a cinnamon-colored black bear, which had apparently emerged from behind patio furniture, charged him, knocking him into the side of the house and breaking two ribs. The bear continued to bite and claw at him as he tried to fight it off with a potted plant.
Cassie then charged at the bear, growling and snarling. Mallory woke to the sound of Jeff and Cassie screaming and ran outside to find the bear holding Cassie in its mouth while Jeff lay injured on the ground. She grabbed a piece of patio furniture and struck the bear in an effort to free the dog. The bear then turned on Mallory, knocking her down and grabbing her by the back of the head before finally fleeing.
Jeff needed 13 staples for his injuries, while Mallory received stitches and a CT scan that revealed neck injuries. Emergency workers took Jeff to the hospital while Mallory stayed behind to evacuate guests from the property and search for Cassie. Cassie died from her injuries two days later. “Cassie was a deeply loved member of their family, and in the moment Jeff needed her most, this little dog courageously put herself between him and a bear,” the fundraiser states. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed it is investigating the incident. Bear attacks on people are rare in the state; a report found 99 nonfatal incidents between 1986 and 2015, with no fatalities recorded during that span.
My thoughts: There’s a specific moment in this account that’s hard to get past, Mallory running outside to find the bear already holding Cassie in its mouth, and choosing to grab a piece of furniture and go after it anyway. That’s not a small decision to make in the middle of an attack that had already broken her husband’s ribs. Cassie’s instinct to charge a bear many times her size wasn’t going to end well for her, but it bought her owners time in a situation where seconds mattered. It’s also worth sitting with how rare this kind of attack actually is in California, which makes it feel less like a pattern and more like a specific, terrible set of circumstances that this family happened to walk into.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, reporting by Aidin Vaziri, with additional reporting from The Inertia, Yahoo News, and KION
