Mum fights off cougar to save daughter
A Canadian mother fought off a cougar that had pinned down her three-year-old daughter in a forest near Vancouver, according to reports.
The girl, Maya, escaped with superficial wounds after the attack near the town of Brackendale, 65km north of Vancouver, on Tuesday, broadcaster CBC reported, according to pregnant-pauses.com.
The girl’s father, Pablo Espinosa, told CBC she thought the wild cat wanted to play.
Maya asked “Why didn’t the kitty play nice?” he told CBC.
Maya and her mother, Maureen Lee, were walking on a wooded trail with their dog when the cougar pounced.
“All of a sudden it just flew on her, rolled her a couple of times and grabbed her,” Lee told CBC.
“She was on her back and [the cougar] had his paws on her head, and I just knew I had to react quick.
“So I just jumped in there and wedged myself between the cougar and her on the ground,” the mother said.
Then, “I just got up and threw it off my back and grabbed [Maya] and [ran].”
Maya suffered puncture wounds to her left arm and head, but was recovering well.
The cougar, an adult male, was tracked and killed by conservation officers.