Can’t find the article, but there was a case a few years ago where a Chinese tourist sprayed bear mace ON HIS KIDS because he thought, not unreasonably, that it was like mosquito repellent. I assume the vacation was ruined after that.
Not completely related, but I learned today that the official world's hottest pepper has approached the scoville level of low-level pepper spray at 2.2 million (Carolina Reaper). Bear spray is still higher at around 5 million though.