The parents of a preschool-aged boy successfully thwarted an attacking cougar during a Sunday afternoon attack in a wooded area west of Fernie, British Columbia.
Joe Caravetta, an inspector with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (COS), says the family was fishing in the lower Morrissey Creek area at approximately 1:00 p.m. when the wildcat advanced on the four-year-old child.
“They turned around and saw the cougar on top of the child, immediately ran over and began to kick the cat, the cougar, and started to beat it with rocks to get it off the child,” said Caravetta.
The cougar retreated and the father was able to grab his son. The family travelled to Fernie where the boy received treatment for punctures and lacerations. The child has since been released from hospital.
Caravetta says the COS deployed its predator attacks team and local cougar houndsmen to the area in the hours following the attack but they were unsuccessful in their attempts to find the animal. The two-day search was exacerbated by extreme heat, strong wind and heavy smoke from several wildfires in British Columbia.
The lower Morrissey Creek area remains open to the public but Caravetta encourages people to avoid the area for the next few days.
There had been no recent reports of cougar sightings in the area prior to Sunday’s incident but the animals frequent the region on a regular basis. Caravetta says it appears the family did nothing out of the ordinary to attract the animal to them or provoke an attack.
“This cougar was looking for something to eat and was probably hunting them alongside the creek there and picked on the smallest of the family group to attack.”
With files from CTV's Jordan Kanygin
