‘Came out of Nowhere’: Big Cat Attacks Man, killed Dog
A man is crediting a black Labrador retriever with saving his life
after the dog jumped on a cougar that sprang out of nowhere and
attacked them.
It was the second cougar attack in Prince George this week and
occurred just metres from Wayne Kraznesky's house.
Kraznesky said Blackie, an eight-year-old black lab, came to his
rescue on the family property on the outskirts of the city.
Kraznesky, 50, said the cougar crept up on them as he was about to
feed the turkeys and geese in a pen.
"This cougar came out of nowhere," said property owner Mike Patenaude,
Kraznesky's brother-in-law.
"He was only about 10 feet away, so my dog jumped him, and (the
cougar) killed the dog. Grabbed her by the throat. She didn't have a
chance."
Kraznesky, who recently moved to Prince George from Penticton, grabbed
the family's other smaller dog and ran to the house. He had no chance
of saving Blackie, which the cougar dragged underneath a camper.
"It's too bad it didn't happen to me, in a sense, because I could have
run back down with my gun," said Patenaude, who is certain Blackie
saved Kraznesky's life.
"Blackie, she's a pretty big dog, and he said when it had her by the
throat, you couldn't even see Blackie any more. I just can't believe
it. She was such a good dog."
Conservation officers couldn't track the cougar immediately because
the snow was too deep. They later returned with a Quesnel contractor
who has cougar-tracking hounds.
"We took a walk down there just on the off chance that it would come
back to try and feed, and it was back down there just a little ways
from the kill, so we put it down," conservation officer Gary Van
Spengen said.
"We have to err on the side of safety of the public."
Thursday's incident was the second involving a cougar this week.
Conservation officers put down a cougar in Beaverly on Tuesday that
had killed a dog last week.
"The dog had been dragged from where it had been killed off the
porch," said Van Spengen, who investigated fresh cougar tracks across
the porch at the home earlier this week.
Brantford Expositor, Ontario: February 2008