Posted on 04/14/2005 11:06:09 AM PDT by neverdem
CALGARY -- Peter Bysterveld is alive to tell his tale of survival from a terrifying cougar attack, thanks to sharp instincts and sheer strength. The 23-year-old SAIT student wrestled the feline and flung it through the air after a failed attempt to escape from it in Kananaskis Country Saturday.
"I hit a muddy patch and fell on my stomach, and then I turned around and grabbed its feet, gave it a toss and picked up a stick and started yelling at it," Bysterveld said yesterday.
Bysterveld and his girlfriend were on the last leg of a long hike in K-Country's Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary when they came face-to-face with two young-looking cougars.
The animals were sitting among trees some seven metres ahead on the popular hiking trail about 20 km west of Turner Valley. One cat turned around, looked his way and lunged in his direction.
With nothing to fight with, Bysterveld felt his only option was to run, which would also distract the cougar from his girlfriend, who watched in horror from behind a tree.
Then Bysterveld fell.
The cat, about the size of a large domestic dog, bit into his calf. Bysterveld responded by taking the cat by its legs and tossing it about five metres.
It got up to come back at him, but Bysterveld had grabbed a stick and yelled at it.
The cat then sauntered off into a gully and the injured Bysterveld - covered in scratches on his arms and a bite to his leg - made it back to safety.
"I think being bigger helped, and I think he was shocked that I picked him up and threw him," said Bysterveld.
Fish and wildlife crews were looking for the offending cat yesterday.
#1 I live in WA state...so I can't have guns here anyway...
#2 Last time I checked guns were still legal in Canada
#3 you're being facetious right?
And not legal to own, possess and/or carry a gun in Washington state? Enlighten me please.
****A mountain lion ate your homework,****
If my mountain lion ate as much homework as I said he did he'd be passing fire logs.
Best move she could have made. Remember teh ditzy blonde with teh chappie who became grizzly scat in Alaska? He told her to run as the bear was killing him. She instead hit Mr. Griz on the head with a cast iron skillet, whereupon she was added to the menu.
"I bet PETA sics the ACLU on this animal hater."
Don't laugh. I am going to trial soon in Naples, FL because I taped a couguar wearing a radio collar attacking a goat.
When the agency realized their beast's bestial behavior was on tape, they file against me!
Welcome to the Sheeples Republic of FloriDUH.
"They shouldn't have kids."
And yet, somehow, we KNOW they will. :)
Your rant is straight out of the National Park Service/PETAPersons talking points paper. By the way, even they are backing off from such inanities.
If the cat wants you, and it did want to kill and eat that student, he wisely diverted the cat from his woman and then defended himself as best he could under the conditions.
Before making any more uninformed statements about such predators, try looking at www.evergladesinstitute.org.
Information can be your friend.
To an uarmed human female, the difference is not significant. In either case, she will be on the menu.
Thanks to environmental-socialism, Americans are being forced back down the path of history to where we had neither guns nor rights.
Should you, like that hapless fool eaten by Mr. Griz, like being forced back down the food chain, enjoy yourself. Just don't try to force me, or other Americans into that position.
Yea and when the second courger attaked her, or the first changed targets he could have had to chase down a courger befor it mamed his GF..
Walk twords the animal and make threating gestures, keeping in mind that if you are on two sides of it you make the animal even more dangerous! There is no way to know if the cats would have run, they could have been starving, rabid, or just plain a-holes. If a cat turned on her now the BF has two things to worry about..
Two cats, not one and even then its not going to help him if the cat turnes on her when she throws him the stick..
I watched a guy reach down and straighten the cast aluminum shifter lever (about 3/4 inch by 1/2 inch) on an old Harley after he laid it down-with one hand. He couldn't come close to bending it later with both.
Feats of even greater strength have been noted.
Invoke the three 'S' rule:
Shoot
Shovel
Shut up.
Works in the States, too.
True, fear and adrenalin can do wonders for just about anyone.
"... good hiking staff/pole/stick with a metal spear like point will piss kitty off if ya have time and see him coming..."
See him coming is the operative phrase here. Cougars are the ghost cats or that's what I recall from watching a few too many "Wonderful World of Disney" feel good animal movies.
I remember trying to reassure myself by confirming with a local park ranger that "after all, cougars aren't like 'real lions in Africa' are they?"
His response: "A California Cougar can clear a 7 foot high chain link fence carrying a 140 pound deer in its mouth."
If ya have to stand and fight better to have something other than nikes.....:o)
I have hunted cougars in the NM Manzano's and they are indeed strong. I'm glad I don't have to endure Cali's Gun Control.
I've been hiking out in Western Montana a few times. I always feel better when I have my gun. It's a Kimber .45--not much good for stopping bears, but it will kill mountain lions dead.
The ranger also told me that they can be 3 feet away behind a bush and you would never know they were there. He was not trying to scare me.
Kids were running up and down a shrub covered hillside and he had been yelling at them to get down off the hill. The parents were somewhere else.
He told me that he was not trying to keep them out of poison oak - he said there were probably no cougars there at that time, but one would never know. He also said there were rattlers up there. Lovely.
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