A 10-year-old boy escaped serious injury during a cougar attack Monday, thanks largely to a border collie that sped to his rescue.
The boy was one of four children hiking with two women on a trail outside a remote cabin near Marshall Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
According to a news release issued Wednesday by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, the boy had run ahead of the group when a cougar “suddenly dropped out of a tree and swiped at the boy, knocking him down.”
ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Orca ‘punts’ seal 40 feet in rare event caught on camera
The cougar scratched the boy’s back and chest before a border collie that accompanied the group jumped onto the cougar’s back. The cougar, or mountain lion, fled into the wilderness amid screaming and rock-throwing.
The COS stated that the boy, after receiving first aid from a nearby road worker, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The incident remains under investigation and the COS, as of Thursday morning, was still trying to track down the cougar.
The agency’s Facebook post about the incident generated nearly 400 comments, with the most popular comment reading, “That dog deserves a steak dinner! Glad to hear the boy escaped serious injury.”
–Generic cougar image courtesy of the USFWS; Marshall Lake image courtesy of the COS
