Posted on 01/26/2007 8:04:16 AM PST by rface
A woman saved her husband’s life by clubbing a mountain lion that attacked him while the couple were hiking in a California state park.
Jim and Nell Hamm, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month, were in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced.
“He didn’t scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground,” Mrs Hamm said from the hospital where her husband was recovering from a torn scalp, puncture wounds and other injuries.
After the attack, game wardens closed the park, about 320 miles north of San Francisco, and released dogs to track the lion. They later shot a pair of lions found near the trail where the attack happened.
The carcasses were flown to a state forensics lab to determine if either animal mauled the man.
Although the Hamms were experienced hikers, neither had seen a mountain lion before Mr Hamm, 70, was mauled, his wife said.
Mrs Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband’s head.
“Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, ’I’ve got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye’,” she said. “So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn’t want to go in as easy as I thought it would.”
When the pen bent and became useless, Mrs Hamm went back to using the log. The lion eventually let go and, with blood on its nose, stood staring at her. She screamed and waved the log until the animal left.
“She saved his life, there is no doubt about it,” said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game.
Mrs Hamm, 65, said she was scared to leave her dazed and bleeding husband alone, so the couple walked a quarter of a mile to a trail head, where she gathered branches to protect them if more lions came. They waited until a ranger came and summoned help.
“My concern was to get Jim out of there,” she said. “I told him, ’Get up, get up, walk’, and he did.”
Mr Hamm was said to be in a fair condition today. He had to have his lips stitched back together and underwent surgery for lacerations on his head and body.
From our Eureka papers...
http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=19812
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_5092661
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_5092656
How about an open season on PETA?
Operative words "if caught". Use caution in whatever you decide to do. It is not a perfect world. The crazies have taken over and decided that an animal's life is more important than a person's life.
Most all these laws are in direct violation of the constitution. They will treat you just like a bank robber or a rapist if you are caught. You just have to make a value judgement and act accordingly. I do not recommend violating any existing law.
Is the constitution considered law?
And any wife that loves her husband would respond to that with a "Hell no" and help fight for his life.
No waiting period for logs. If she used an eight inch log rather than the four inch log she would have knocked the cat into next Sunday.
Roger that.
I will not go hiking or camping where I cannot be armed how I choose to be.
Shotgun, 357, 45, 308 all loaded and easily accessable.
Yeah, and the bears are starting to be a problem in some of the campgrounds further south, like Albee Creek and Burlington. Some people have a bizarre fascination with 'our friends' the cuddly, fuzzy bears. I think they're a darn nuisance, and would just as soon shoot one if he started to bother me. Bears never used to be a problem in those campgrounds. Last summer when I was there, they were starting an effort to replace all the wooden storage cabinets with bear proof ones, to try to discourage bears. They were asking for donations from campground visitors to pay for them.
An eight inch diameter log is a little unwieldy as a hand weapon. :~) I think she chose well enough :~)
LOL. I was going to say that that is a pretty long sentence to utter with your head in a lions mouth.
Little old ladies pick up cars off of trapped relatives all the time. An eight inch log, plant the rear foot, step firmly, swing from the hips, and the cat will bounce once on the way to the outfield.
Well, I guess I'll just admire that she made do with what she had, she may not have had a lot of time to go looking for just the right log.
That's true. I was wondering about the size of the log since I heard the story this morning. A four inch log I would consider a stick, kindling wood.
It's bigger diameter than a baseball bat, and I think baseball bats can do some damage.
"And any wife that loves her husband would respond to that with a "Hell no" and help fight for his life."
Thus, ending her life in the process, instead of going to seek help.
My wife and I spend most of our waking hours in the woods and she has strict instructions to run if I say "run", stop if I say "stop", without questioning "why" or "how come, what is it". A moment's hesitation can cost you your life, i.e. rattlesnakes, falling trees/limbs, rolling rocks, yellow-jacket nests, bears, cougars, coyotes etc. etc. etc.
Here's another idea. She pulls out her .357 mag and pops the lion at the base of it's neck being careful not to shoot the husband.
Of course that would not be an option under a Giuliani led anti-gun government.
To a puma? It might attract his attention, or then again it might not. One on our softball team bent one of the aluminum bats on a softball, and the softball wasn't round anymore when we found it after the game. He might do some damage with a baseball bat, or he could just sit on the cat and let his weight squeeze the breath out of the animal.
Only thing wrong is, in this story, she didn't die. She saved them both. She was not useless, and who knows how far away some other choice in help might have been.
I swear, in a world where too many can't function without help from others, a couple of people go out in the woods and fight off a lion, and some FReepers have to find a problem with it.
Whatever... jeez... say what you want, but what she did worked.
Lucky you. That's some beautiful country up there. A Ranger at Prarie Creek once told me the bears in the area are really more like "big dogs", and if I see one to just make myself appear bigger and yell at him and he'll probably go away. Luckily, I've never seen one.
Just damn! Go Granny, go!!
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