In bear country Romania, cohabitation grows strenuous

CUSMA, Romania - When Maria Lacatus' son opened the barn door, it was already too late. "The bear had one of the pigs in its claws," the sobbing 86-year-old says.

After losing a horse a few days later, Lacatus now agrees with many of her neighbors in the northern Romanian village of Cusma that hunting the protected species is the only answer.

The bear had fled through an opening it had made in some of the barn's wooden planks, Lacatus says, unable to shake the vision of the animal she "almost bumped into".