Stranded Adventurer Ate His Dog To Survive

According to this report from the Toronto Sun, 44-year-old Marco Lavoie, an experienced wilderness traveler, was on a months-long solo canoe trip in northwestern Quebec’s Nottaway River Wilderness when a bear raided his camp. The bear ate his food, destroyed his canoe, and wounded his German shepherd. The attack stranded Lavoie, forcing him to kill and eat his dog. Police rescued him last Wednesday, dehydrated, hypothermic, and near starvation.

Lavoie is an experienced outdoorsman known to spend weeks in the wilderness alone. Andre Francois Bourbeau, a survival expert quoted by the Sun, credited him with making the right decision to survive.

“You have to be desperate, but there’s no shame in (eating the dog),” said Bourbeau. “He had to use reason.” Lavoie used a rock to kill the dog.

When rescuers found Lavoie, he had lost 90 pounds and was barely able to speak or drink water. He is currently in the hospital listed in “very serious” condition.