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A cougar attacked them. They fought back for 45 harrowing minutes (Washington State)
KUOW Seattle / NPR ^ | March 14, 2024 | Angela King & Natalie Akane Newcomb

Posted on 03/17/2024 1:26:43 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

Five competitive cyclists – women in their 50s and 60s – met at the Tokul Creek trail north of Snoqualmie.

At the yellow gate before riding into the deep forest, the women took a group selfie. They had no premonition that 19 miles in, a young male cougar would attack one of them, and that they’d spend 45 minutes in a battle for their lives.

The first cougar, presumably the mother or a sibling, ran off. But the younger one paused … and then lunged at Keri Bergere, 60, who was biking a few paces ahead of him.

“Looking to my right, I saw the cougar’s face,” Bergere said. “It was just a split second, and he tackled me off my bike.”

Bergere and the cougar tumbled into a shallow ditch to the side of the trail. The animal sunk his teeth into Bergere’s jaw and pinned her face into the dirt.

“I thought my teeth were coming loose, and I was gonna swallow my teeth,” she said. “I could feel the bones crushing, and I could feel it tearing back.”

The cougar ripped an earring out of her ear, while maintaining a vice grip on her.

“These ladies are not big, and they were killing this cougar,” Bergere said. “They were not going to let it get me.”

Fight, flight, or freeze, they say, and these women fought. One had a two-inch knife and used it to stab the wild cat – to little avail.

Cyclist Annie Bilotta, 64, tried to choke the cat.

(Excerpt) Read more at kuow.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: ambush; attack; banglist; cat; cougar; mountainlion; outdoors; surpriseattack; washington
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To: AlaskaErik

5.56 Velo-Dog, the sporting solution to an age old problem.
Probably works on cats too.


81 posted on 03/17/2024 6:13:14 PM PDT by dmcnash (Back off! I'm a Scientist.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

The poor lady. The cougar looks small I’m surprised it attacked the 5 of them. She said she poked its eyes but if she had really jammed them hard enough I bet it would release its grip. Wouldn’t be easy for them to be armed with handguns in Cali nor would it be practical to be biking with a rifle. But at minimum they should have had a large hunting knife and some pepper spray.


82 posted on 03/17/2024 6:24:43 PM PDT by jimwatx
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Just kill the animal, no remorse.


83 posted on 03/17/2024 6:51:47 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie ( )
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To: dynoman

What a monster!


84 posted on 03/17/2024 6:57:26 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
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To: Texan5

” I realized that anyone else walking in the woods would have heard me and thought there was a crazy person out there...”

LOL...that’s always what I think when I’m “singing” and screaming and clapping and telling them “OK Cats, move it, here I come!”

My wife wears a bear bell that makes the smallest little tinkly sound ever. Absolutely useless. We all know about bear scat that smells like pepper and has small silvery bells in it.


85 posted on 03/17/2024 7:01:37 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
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To: dmcnash

“Velo-Dog” I’d never heard of that before. Fascinating history on Wiki about it.


86 posted on 03/17/2024 7:06:40 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
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To: jimwatx

It was in Washington state, not California. Washington is a lot better than CA. They could have had a sidearm with them.

Washington is a “shall-issue” state and will grant concealed carry permits to all applicants who meet the criteria. There are no training requirements.

Open carry is lawful in Washington without any permit. As a general rule, a person may legally open carry without a permit in Washington state in any place it is legal to possess a loaded handgun, as long as it does not manifest “an intent to intimidate another or [warrant] alarm for the safety of other persons.” A properly holstered visible handgun will not generally fall under that clause.

As of July 1, 2022, the manufacture, distribution, and sale of magazines that have a capacity of over 10 rounds are prohibited. The possession of such magazines, however, is not restricted.


87 posted on 03/17/2024 7:15:54 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Every time my 1st hubby and I went camping at a favorite park in the mountains in NM, we would go to the ranger station to pay and get a space number. We loved hearing one of the rangers telling the newbie campers to make loud noises and yell along with carrying bear spray to keep bears away-not little bells, because everyone knows about bear scat that smells like pepper and has little bells in it. I think the 1st people who recommended wearing those little bells to keep bears and other predators away must have been living on another planet...


88 posted on 03/17/2024 7:56:23 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to sadldle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line...")
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To: lastchance

“I know not to go into crevasses there are pumas in the crevasses”.

Smothers brothers reference...


89 posted on 03/17/2024 7:56:53 PM PDT by Does so ( 🇺🇦...Motels for Migrants give legitimate addresses for mail-in votes.)
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To: Telepathic Intruder

ONE INCH IN THE RIGHT PLACE IS SUFFICIENT.

BUT ONLY WHEN YOU KNOW WHERE THE RIGHT PLACE IS!

If you place the fingers of your right hand onto your neck just to the left of your larynx, and slightly above it you’ll feel a very strong pulse. Feel around, you’ll find it, 2-3 FINGERTIPS LONG! It’s your carotid artery, 1/4 inch below your skin. Sever it completely and you will bleed to death in no time at all. Compress the left and right arteries, internal and external, simultaneously, cutting off ALL blood flow to the brain, and you will be unconscious from instantly to a second or two...dead in very few seconds more. There is no more vital organ than the brain and without blowing it out of its skull no quicker way to kill it than depriving it of its necessary oxygen, either by blocking the flow of blood to it or directing the flow elsewhere by opening the pipes of this closed system to the outside (Takes just a very little longer). There are other arteries within an inch of the surface of the skin, but you can’t just look for them, telepathic or not, ya gotta know where they are.

I sure wouldn’t care to go at a puma with anything much less than a platoon of infantry, but in a push come to shove sit a 2”, very sharp knife CAN do the job...guided by knowledge.

Held down the way he was, a sharp 2” knife might very well
have sufficed...guided by knowledge of where the right places are...a little luck and a HUGE set a rocks!

Have you found your carotid arteries yet and discovered how vulnerable they are to the 2” knife these women had? Harder to do on a lion, but not impossible.

BEAR THIS IN MIND:I heard once on a TV show, spoken by a master martial artist to his favorite student, “HAVE NO OPINION GRASSHOPPER, SPEAK RARELY, AND THEN ONLY TO ASK, THAT YOU MAY LEARN AND ACQUIRE WISDOM.”

I thought to myself, “WHAT A CROCK!”


90 posted on 03/17/2024 8:34:57 PM PDT by TigerHawk (The Raised Middle Finger in the Clenched Fist of the World!)
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To: TigerHawk

The neck has blood vessels going from and out of the brain. The throat is a vulnerable spot. But an attacking carnivore is not going to just offer it to you.


91 posted on 03/17/2024 9:07:29 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Does so

Yep. I was hoping someone would catch the reference.


92 posted on 03/17/2024 10:02:41 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: PIF

The woman was lucky the cougar was young and inexperienced. If it was a mature animal it would have grabbed her throat instead of her jaw. When people go into the wild where there are large predators they should have a weapon that can protect them from the predator.


93 posted on 03/17/2024 11:36:12 PM PDT by Rdct29 (The Democrats Are The New Nazi Party )
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To: Buttons12
with cougars and black bears, I've always been told to fight back...make yourself look larger, threatening....

the injured woman looks rough but the swelling will go down and she'll be on the mend.

94 posted on 03/17/2024 11:45:21 PM PDT by cherry
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

todays middle school boys would wet their pants and run away, leaving the victim...


95 posted on 03/17/2024 11:47:49 PM PDT by cherry
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
“Five competitive cyclists – women in their 50s and 60s - fought off a cougar for 45 minutes”
A good middle school boys team would have won much faster...

Too bad they didn't have any transwomen with them. Centrist in Seattle.

96 posted on 03/18/2024 6:46:22 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (Either ‘the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State.’ --Donald Trump)
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To: Telepathic Intruder
Animals have the natural defenses God gave them. We have no natural defenses because God gave us brains instead. Our defenses are the ones we make and carry. Taking them away is no different than de-clawing a cat. A cruel thing.

Pithy! Needs repeating.

97 posted on 03/18/2024 6:56:22 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (Either ‘the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State.’ --Donald Trump)
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