British Columbia resident Jim West said while traveling near Green Lake, he was attacked by the large animal and was forced to take aggressive action, The Province newspaper reported Wednesday.

"She put me down twice. I knew if she put me down again, chances are I wouldn't get up," West said of Saturday's incident. "It wasn't fight or flight. It was live or die."

West told the Province the bear appeared to have been acting aggressively to protect two cubs but he also recognized that the animal's actions placed him into a life-or-death situation.

"I feel great regret for having to kill that bear and even more that her cubs were put down. But it was her or me," said West, who received wounds to his arm and head in the attack.