Vermont governor almost gets eaten by bears

Peter Shumlin lives a 10 minute walk from the Vermont statehouse and he has a bear problem.

The governor said in an interview with Valley News that on Wednesday night he noticed four bears picking away at his bird feeders in his yard.

"I yell at them through the window, they run away, and come right back," Shumlin said.

Barefoot and straight out of bed, the first-term Democrat said he was intent on rescuing his bird feeders.

"First, I scare them away, and they keep coming back," Shumlin said of the bears.

"So I go out and grab two of the feeders, run back into the house, then they come back, they knock the suet out, then knock the big feeder down, and they are going at it," ...

He said he went outside one more time (apparently to see what it's like to stare death cold in the face) and was confronted by one of the more aggressive bears. "The (bear) charges me on the porch - I'm tearing through the door. You almost lost the governor."

The man loves his bird feeders.

[VPR News, CQ-Roll Call]