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Florida Man's Shoe Found In Bear After Attack In Smokies

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The Associated Press

Published: August 19, 2008

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A shoe lost by a Florida man while fighting off a bear that hurt his 8-year-old son has been found in the stomach of the bear authorities killed because they suspected it in the attack.

The footwear was discovered in the black bear's stomach during a necropsy at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center, Great Smoky Mountains National Park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said Monday.

It leaves little doubt rangers killed the right bear.

John Pala, a 43-year-old health insurance salesman from Boca Raton with no backwoods experience, literally ran out of his shoes racing to the aid of his son Evan when the bear pounced on the boy during a day hike Aug. 11 along the popular Rainbow Falls trail.

Twice, Pala grabbed the young male bear's face, pulled its mouth apart and pushed the 86-pound animal away before Evan finally escaped.

Then Pala and Evan's 10-year-old brother, Alex, pelted the bear with sticks and stones until they could slowly back away and run to join Evan in a parking lot where they left their car.

Pala could hardly walk the next day because of the beating taken by his bare feet. Evan had bruises on his back, stitches in his arms and staples on his scalp, but was otherwise OK. Alex was unhurt.

Rangers killed the bear suspected in the attack a few hours later in the same place where the Pala family was attacked. They shot the animal when it charged them. One of Pala's shoes was found nearby.

Pala, now home, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that rangers called him Friday to say they'd found his other shoe "inside the bear's stomach." The boys "really got a kick to hear that," he wrote.

Pala doesn't expect to see the shoe again. But Evan has hopes for his own memento.

"They do have the bloody Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt that Evan had on and plan to send that back," Pala said.

Gray said the necropsy results were still preliminary, but it confirmed the bear did not have rabies.

Authorities say the attack was unprovoked, though Pala said their clothes might have smelled like fried chicken from a meal an hour earlier.

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