Hollywood trainer distraught by grizzly attack

Big Bear Lake, California: The owner of a wild animal training centre where a grizzly bear killed a handler says the animal is a loving, affectionate and safe bear, and he is at a loss to explain how a simple routine turned tragic.

Randy Miller said late Wednesday he was overwhelmed with grief after his cousin, Stephan Miller, was killed on Tuesday during the filming of a promotional video at Randy Miller's Predators in Action centre. "It's ... killing me. We were brothers," Randy Miller said, close to tears.

Miller, who witnessed the attack, would not talk in detail about what happened, but said the 5-year-old male bear named Rocky had been trained to wrestle with experienced handlers. "It's a playful behaviour brought out on cue," he said.

But when Rocky suddenly bit his cousin in the neck, "it hit him in a very vulnerable spot. If it had hit his arm or something it would have been bad", but wouldn't have cost him his life, Miller said. "It happened so fast," he said. "We did what we had to do to stop the bear. It took a matter of seconds to get him off, but it was too late." Handlers used pepper spray to subdue the bear. Paramedics arriving shortly after the initial emergency call were unable to revive Stephan Miller.

A 911 recording documented desperate efforts to save him before paramedics arrived.

"He's bleeding heavily from his neck. ... We need someone here immediately," a woman told the operator, who directed emergency procedures while determining that the bear was contained.

Desperate voice

"We gotcha; holding on to you, man," a male voice said before it was clear Stephan Miller was no longer breathing.

Matt Wilson, 18, a neighbour who lives up a dirt road from the animal centre, said Randy Miller told Wilson's family that his staff had been filming an advertisement when the bear attacked.

The California Department of Fish and Game investigated the attack but will not decide whether the bear will be euthanised because the attack occurred outside its jurisdiction on a private site, department spokesman Harry Morse said. State occupational safety officials are trying to determine if they have jurisdiction, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Industrial Relations.