The mother of a boy bitten by a bear at Maymont said yesterday that she assured health officials that she was willing for her child to undergo rabies shots.

“I didn’t want anything to happen to the bears. That was first and foremost,” said Julia, a 30-year-old single mother of the 4-year-old. “We had decided to go ahead and do the rabies treatment.”

But when she called city health officials on Thursday to tell them of her decision, they informed her that the two male black bears, ages 9 and 12, had been killed an hour or two before.

“When they told me, I cried,” Julia said. “I was devastated.”

While local officials maintain that euthanization was the only option, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed yesterday that it offered two — euthanize the bears or treat the child for rabies. City health officials did not return phone calls yesterday to discuss the second option.

Julia, who agreed to an interview with The Times-Dispatch on the condition that only her first name be used, denied that she helped her son feed the bears when the two visited the park on Feb. 18. They were sharing an apple while walking behind the 2-acre bear habitat about 3 p.m., she said, when she turned her head for a few seconds.

When she turned back around, her son had cleared the habitat’s preliminary barrier, a 4-foot wooden slat fence, and was standing outside the 10-foot chain-link fence, she said. One of the bears was sitting just on the other side.

“The bear was sitting there quiet and calm,” Julia said. “The bear was not acting aggressive in any way.”

Before Julia could reach her child, she said, he had put his right hand through the fence and was bitten.

“He was reaching in to pet the bear,” said Julia, who visits Maymont with her son weekly. “I jumped over the fence and grabbed him as he was pulling his hand out. He said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.'”

His hand was bleeding, Julia said, so she took off one of her two shirts and used it as a bandage. She carried him to her truck and drove him immediately to St. Mary’s Hospital.

Doctors there cleaned out the single puncture wound and treated it with antibiotics. She said she doesn’t remember anyone there mentioning treating him for rabies.

“I’m sure they did, but I don’t recall,” she said. “I was worried about what was going on with my son.”

When she got home about 8 p.m., she noticed a message on her cell phone from the city health department. She called back but did not reach anyone.

Monday was the Presidents Day holiday. She and health officials didn’t talk until Tuesday, and the first time the rabies treatment process was explained to her was on Wednesday, she said.

Officials also told her that in order to test the bears for the disease, they would have to be euthanized. There is no rabies test that can be administered to live animals.

On Thursday, officials from Maymont, the Virginia Department of Health, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries met to determine the fate of the bears. Julia said she called the city health department that day to tell them she wanted her son to undergo the rabies treatment.

“I called around lunchtime,” she said. “They told me the bears had already been euthanized.”

Euthanizing the bears was the only definitive way to know if the child was exposed to rabies, said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for Game and Inland Fisheries.

“It was not the mother’s call,” Dixon said yesterday. “The professionals around the room consulted together. It was our call. We had to go with what was best for the child.”

Julia, a trainer at an area collection service, hasn’t been watching or reading the local news reports about the bears. But she is aware that many people are demanding justice. The Times-Dispatch has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from readers.

“I’m aware of the outcry,” she said. “It’s normal. It’s what people should do for anything they are passionate about.”

But she draws the line at people calling her an unfit mother. When she heard last week that Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder called for an investigation into the incident and into whether she was negligent, she hired an attorney.

“This was an accident,” said Michael Morchower, Julia’s lawyer. “Everyone has to live with it and accept it and not point fingers. If this is negligence on her part, then 80 percent of mothers and fathers in Richmond better take notice.”

Julia, who grew up in Richmond, has visited Maymont since she was a child. People who think she has any intention of suing the park are wrong, she said. She places no blame on Maymont for her son’s minor injury and doesn’t think the nonprofit organization should change its fencing strategy.

“Maymont needs what’s been working for 25 years,” she said. “And that’s exactly what it has now. I don’t see this as Maymont’s fault or my fault. It was an accident.”

She plans to continue her visits to Maymont with her son, an only child, and looks forward to the day the park has more bears. The child knows the two they visited 10 days ago are now dead.

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“He’s devastated,” Julia said. “But he had a right to know.”

He understands he should not have climbed the fence, she said, and has made an “I am sorry” card for the bears. Drawn in crayon, it sits on a bookshelf in his bedroom.

“We are brokenhearted,” Julia said. “My feelings are no different than what other people are going through. We are all mourning. We all want the bears back.”

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Maymont employees are mourning the death of the park’s two black bears, destroyed yesterday after one of them bit a 4-year-old boy last weekend.

The animals were sedated and given a lethal injection around midday after Maymont officials met behind closed doors for nearly three hours with representatives from the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

“It’s devastating,” said a teary Susan Allmond, senior zoologist who has cared for the bears for six years. “Part of our family is gone. I’m never going to get over it. They’ve been ripped from us.”

Both bears, ages 12 and 9, were euthanized because it was not known which one bit the boy, Maymont officials said. The child and at least one parent were apparently at the rear of the 2-acre bear exhibit Saturday when the child climbed a 4-foot wooden fence into a restricted area and approached the 10-foot chain-link fence that surrounds the bears.

“The child may have been eating an apple or had apple [scent] on his hands,” said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for Game and Inland Fisheries. The child put his hand through the fence and was bitten.

Hours later, the child was treated and released from Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital, where doctors administered antibiotics. No stitches were required. The hospital reported the incident to the city health department, which notified the Virginia Department of Health and then Game and Inland Fisheries. Maymont was not notified until Tuesday.

“I’m not mad at the child, but I’m frustrated that it happened,” said Mark Rich, director of the Maymont Nature Center. “It could have been avoided.”

There is no rabies vaccine for bears and no rabies test that can be administered to a live animal. Brain tissue from both bears will be tested at the state lab. Should either come back positive, the city health department will notify the child’s parents and the child will undergo a series of six shots over 28 days. Without treatment, rabies is almost always fatal. In 2003, a 25-year-old Virginia man died from raccoon-related rabies, the last reported death in the state.

“Bears are low-risk for rabies, but the bottom line is it’s not no-risk,” said Bob Duncan, director of the wildlife division for Game and Inland Fisheries. Euthanizing the bears, he said, “is the necessary thing.”

Yesterday’s meeting examined alternatives, officials said. When a decision was reached, groups of employees cried as they consoled one another. State officials, too, shed a few tears.

“Our first reaction was, ‘It’s not the bear’s fault! Why should we even consider this?'” Dixon said. “But the answer is we don’t have a choice. It doesn’t matter if people are irresponsible . . . it’s a public-health decision.”

Maymont officials considered quarantining the bears, but since the incubation period for rabies is uncertain in bears, Rich said, that was not a viable option.

“It could be 45 days before the animal showed signs,” he said. “By then it would have been too late. When in doubt, you have to go with human health.”

Another option would have been to administer the rabies treatment to the child.

“Whether the child received treatment or not, we felt from a public-health standpoint we had to know whether either bear had rabies,” said Shannon Nicole Marshall, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. “Our ultimate responsibility is to protect public health.”

That doesn’t make the decision any easier, Allmond said.

“Because of my connection to the bears, I obviously didn’t like it,” she said. “But there is nothing I could have done to prevent it. That is what is so hard. These bears knew us, and they were happy here.”

Both bears were moved to Maymont by Game and Inland Fisheries, the state department that licenses facilities to exhibit wildlife.

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The younger bear came to Maymont from Goochland County in 1999 as a 2-year-old, Allmond said, and had been classified as a “nuisance” bear.

The older bear was orphaned and given to the park as a cub in 1994. When it was introduced to the public in early 1995, Maymont celebrated with Bear Family Day, and children brought their favorite stuffed bears for a Victorian Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Parade.

This is the first incident involving an animal bite at Maymont since bears were introduced 25 year ago. The park, which annually draws about 500,000 visitors, has about 700 animals, 80 of which are mammals. Officials said there are no plans at this time to add or change fencing.

“No matter how many fences you put up, you are always at risk that someone will circumvent them,” Rich said. “People need to remember these are wild animals here at Maymont. They need to be respected.”

Virginia is home to about 6,000 black bears. Most reside in the western part of the state. In the wild, black bears live five to seven years, but in captivity up to 25 years.

“This wasn’t their time,” Allmond said. “It’s such a shock to all of us. These were everybody’s bears. Everyone is going to miss them.”