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Posted on 08/04/2002 1:46:13 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
VICTORIA (CP) -- A 61-year-old man won a life-and-death struggle with a cougar outside a small northern Vancouver Island village, killing the animal with his 7.5-centimetre pocket knife.
Dave Parker was jumped from behind while walking on an industrial road two kilometres south of Port Alice, a village of 1,300 about 370 kilometres north of Victoria.
The retired pulp-mill worker was attacked Thursday evening by a 45-kilogram adult male cat, conservation officer Ken Fujino said.
"It was thin but by no means starving," Fujino said from Port Hardy, the nearest sizable town.
"There was no indications as to any physical injuries that we could see that may have provoked the attack."
Parker was being mauled but managed to get to his folding pocket knife.
"A lot of people carry knives out here, or bear spray," said Port Alice Mayor Larry Pepper, a friend of Parker. "People are quite conscious of the fact there's cougars here."
Pepper said Parker managed to turn on the attacking cougar and slit its throat.
Despite extensive wounds, Parker managed to walk about a kilometre to a forest mill's log-sorting area. Late-shift workers rushed him to Port Alice's tiny hospital.
" Because of the seriousness of his injuries they took him by ambulance to Port Hardy and flew him down to the hospital (in Victoria)," said Fujino.
Parker was undergoing surgery Friday to repair his wounds and was expected to recover in the intensive-care unit. He was listed in critical but stable condition.
Pepper said Parker liked to hike and was in good physical condition.
RCMP Const. Jeff Flindall said police found Parker's knife next to the carcass of the dead cougar.
"It is a pocket knife and it is approximately three inches long," Flindall said from Port Alice.
Fujino said there have been a spate of cougar sightings around Port Alice in recent weeks.
"Generally as a whole cougar attacks are fairly rare," he said.
However, the village was the scene of a serious cougar attack two years ago.
A Seattle tourist was cycling outside Port Alice when he was jumped by an injured cougar.
A passing motorist saw the man struggling with the cat and waded in to chase it away. The animal was later tracked and killed by conservation officers.
On second glance, he was armed as well as he could have been without risking a 5 year sentence from Her Majesty's Justice Courts. Looks like he was just out of luck!
Specifically the bipeds with opposable thumbs.
Crossbows are quiet. And night-vision equiptment is getting cheaper every year. Should be part of everyone's bag of tricks
LOL!
Bad kitty!!! Bad - bad - kitty!!
Ban pocket knives! They are a threat to our natural wild life!!
What? There is a road going through this animals territory? Ban all roads now!!!!
I'm glad the guy was "armed" (note to walkers in those woods - ya need a bigger knife!) and won the battle.
Special note to NAGs, NOW, Sierra Comrades, Green Peace, etc.,..."
Beast - 0
Man - 1
Please give me a moment - I feel a compelling urge to get on my roof now and beat my chest whilst yelling - loudly!
I'll be carrying a hatchet from now on - in case one of those Enviro-Nazi brain washed trees attacks me on my next 'conservative' walk through the woods!
I'm sure we will hear the tripe about how this was his fault. Can't wait to see the spin.
LVM
Hey! I have one of those! But, I used it for two-legged critters.
I had some former painters who were unhappy with their compensation from the builder...
they thought they would make up any losses with stuff from my house.
Their interest wained after I told them about my gun...
I hear that hungry cougars tend to sneak up behind you and go for your neck, though, so the Canuck in the story was apparently very lucky and very determined to have survived.
scuse me while I go retch...
On NOW at RadioFR!
Tonight The Shrew will host William S. Lind of the Free Congress Foundation on Radio Free Republic! Tune in to hear one of the foremost military writers discuss the article he has co-written with Paul Weyrich!
That's one heck of a tough old man!
At 61 I'd have to agree. Probably felt a rush of adrenaline that gave him the strength he needed at the last moment.
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