A cougar attack has left a Powell River woman in a state of shock and her daughter devastated.
Esther Dyck, her daughter who was visiting from Cumberland and their three dogs—one Jack Russell and two Chihuahuas—were walking along the Sunshine Coast Trail at Harbour Point near Saltery Bay on Monday, August 12 when a cougar ambushed them and killed one dog.
“We were all walking pretty close, talking loudly and beating the bushes as we walked,” said Dyck. “I hear a thump and I turn around and I thought I saw the face of a cougar.”
She explained that it did not register right away because it happened so quickly, but a cougar had pounced on one of her daughter’s dogs, right next to where they were standing. As quickly as it pounced, it grabbed the dog and pulled it up into a nearby tree.
“It was horrifying,” Dyck said. “I can still see the cougar and its muscles. It wasn’t scared of us at all.”
They threw sticks at the cougar and shouted to see if it would release the dog, but that didn’t work, so they ran out to their cars as fast as they could.
They drove back to their campsite at Saltery Bay Provincial Park and the caretaker phoned the wildlife conservation officers.
Gerry Lister was one of the officers who responded to Dyck’s report. He walked along the same trail that Dyck had to the place where he could see the scuffle marks. He discovered the young cougar, which was around two years old, not far from where the initial attack happened.
“The cougar was watching me when I came in,” said Lister. “I heard a twig snap and I turned around and there it was, no more than 10 feet away.”
Lister said he saw the cougar’s tail disappear behind a tree and he followed it to a clearing where he shot it.
“It was kind of bizarre,” he said. “In that case it got something to eat and it was just hanging around in the area to look for more.”
The trail where the incident occurred is well-used as it is near the beach and the Saltery Bay ferry terminal.
Lister said that the cougar was fairly comfortable with the area and thought it was a good place to hunt, so it would not have been long before another person and their small dogs would have been attacked in the same way. He explained though that attacks such as these are not common and “usually the fact there are a couple of people and dogs is enough to keep a cougar from even attempting it.
“Why it chose to take its chances I have no idea,” he added, noting that the cougar was in decent health and did not look like it was starving.
When walking in the woods, hikers and dog walkers are advised to bring a five-foot long walking stick, a whistle and some pepper spray.
“I understand that this one happened really quick and there may not have been time to do anything,” said Lister, “but if you saw the cougar coming and it was eyeing up your dog, you could bang the ground or ward the cougar off with the stick.”
Dyck will not be heading back into the woods with her dog anytime soon. Although she does stream restoration work for the federal government, she said the experience has left her in shock and a week later she was still having nightmares.
“I can’t tell you how terrifying it was to be that close,” she said.
