SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A cougar attacked a 9-year-old woman who was enjoying hide-and-seek at a church camp in Washington state, severely wounding her and sending her associates operating in concern.
Lily A. Kryzhanivskyy and two different youngsters have been enjoying within the woods Saturday on the camp close to the small city of Fruitland, northwest of Spokane. Lily jumped out to shock her associates when the cougar attacked, the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife mentioned.
Adults rushed to assist and located the woman coated in blood. She was airlifted to a hospital, the place she had surgical procedure for a number of wounds to her head and higher physique.
Lily was launched from the intensive care unit Monday and stays hospitalized in secure situation, the division mentioned Tuesday.
Following the assault, adults staying on the church camp discovered the younger male cougar and killed it.
“We’re extraordinarily grateful for this little woman’s resiliency, and we’re impressed together with her spunk within the face of this unlucky encounter,” Fish and Wildlife Police Capt. Mike Sprecher mentioned. “It occurred quick, and we’re grateful that the adults on the camp responded so rapidly.”
Assessments accomplished over the weekend confirmed the animal didn’t have rabies, the company mentioned.
Cougar assaults on people are uncommon. There have been simply two deadly assaults on people in Washington state prior to now 100 years, in 1924 and 2018, the company mentioned. State data present one other 20 cougar assaults on people leading to accidents.
The cougar, also referred to as a mountain lion, is the second-largest cat within the Americas after the jaguar. Secretive and largely solitary by nature, cougars are not often seen in daylight. The ambush predator eats deer and smaller animals. Whereas cougars typically keep away from individuals, assaults on people have elevated in North America as extra individuals enter cougar habitat.
“On this occasion, this little woman did nothing unsuitable,” mentioned Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Staci Lehman. “It occurred so rapidly, and there’s nothing she might have finished to stop it.”
If attacked by a cougar, it is best to yell on the animal and attempt to make your self look larger, she mentioned. If it assaults, keep in your ft and struggle again.
“Don’t flip round. Don’t take your eyes off the animal,” Lehman added. “Don’t run.”
This story corrects that Fruitland, Washington, is within the northeastern a part of the state, not the northwestern a part of the state
