INSIDE EDITION talks to a woman who welcomes black bears onto her property, but fish and wildlife experts say eventually she will pay a high price for getting so close to the wild animals.
Most people would be terrified to find a bear in their backyard?
But Susan Kehoe not only isn't afraid, she actually welcomes bears. They even play on her hammock.
She lives near a state park in New Jersey, and when INSIDE EDITION went to her house, we were shocked.
"I can't believe there's a 400-pound black bear about 20-feet behind me!" said INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander.
There were no less than four bears just hanging out in her back yard!
But is the woman known locally as "The Bear Whisperer" going too far?
"I'm dispelling the myth right now. Okay. Never get between a mother and cubs. Okay, that's the mother bear, I'm here, and I'm between them. Ok," said Kehoe.
Kelcey Burgess, NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, said, "It's a game of Russian roulette. Eventually you're going to pay."
The New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife is engaged in continuous war with Kehoe.
She says she filmed a confrontation when authorities were shooting bears with tranquilizing darts near her property, "You shot right into my area!" screamed Kehoe.
Kehoe says she wants people to know that bears are really gentle creatures, not the potential killer beasts they're sometimes portrayed as.
But authorities say she's putting not only herself, but also the black bears in danger.
"Black bears that are intentionally fed lose their fear of people. And ultimately what happens is those bears start breaking into homes become dangerous and are euthanized. We have unfortunately probably more home entries per square mile around her house than anywhere else in the state," said Burgess.
So what does she say to people who think the black bears she loves so much might kill her one day?
"For 25 years I've been interacting with bears, taking photography video. I'm still here and if anything does happen to me, I've died doing what I loved best," said Kehoe.
