B.C. man fights off cougar after it wrapped its jaws around family dog’s head

Crimson, a Ridgeback-German Shepherd cross, is fortunate to be alive after her proprietor’s father fought off a cougar that attacked the nine-year-old canine final week.

Ian Orser, a plumber from Grand Forks, B.C., was working in a residential neighbourhood close to Christina Lake on April 9 when he and his 40-year-old daughter, Megan, heard a commotion together with howling.

“We thought it was a canine combat at first. My daughter went down there, and he or she simply yelled, ‘It is a cougar!'” he instructed CBC Radio West host Sarah Penton. 

He mentioned he ran over to see Crimson’s head inside a cougar’s mouth.

“The one factor I might consider doing was to kick it within the head,” mentioned Orser, 69.

“If I might have considered it, I most likely would not have ran over there. However I simply needed to save our canine.”

Orser’s kick did the trick, and the cougar backed off — but it surely did not go far. 

Orser says he then swung a stick on the massive cat, but it surely nonetheless did not run away. He and his daughter then grabbed Crimson and the two different canine with them and hopped into his truck to get to the vet. 

Crimson acquired medical therapy and Orser mentioned she’s doing fantastic now. However he mentioned if both of his different canine — each springer spaniels — had been on this scenario, it might have ended a lot worse. 

“I believe they might have been useless as a result of they’re so much smaller,” he mentioned.

Orser reported the incident to conservation officers. The B.C. Conservation Officer Service confirmed they’d acquired a number of stories of a cougar within the residential space.

Officers tracked down the animal and, due to the chance to the general public, put it down.