Cougar Wounds 5-Year-Old In Rare Attack On Human

BREMERTON - A 5-year-old Kitsap County boy was attacked by a cougar while on a hike with his father on the Olympic Peninsula.

Andrew Braun received two puncture wounds on his chest and a gash on his back in the attack, said his father, Mike Braun. The boy was treated at Bremerton's Harrison Hospital and released.

Mike Braun said he and his son were throwing rocks into the Dungeness River, about 3 miles upstream from Camp Hardy in the Olympic National Forest, when the cat attacked Saturday.

Andrew's 8-year-old brother, Stephen, backpacker Bob Laschinski of Scandia and Matthew Demaray, 12, were playing by the river about 50 yards upstream.

Braun said he was standing no more than 3 feet from his son.

"I heard a sound behind me and looked down and saw my son lying on the ground with the cougar on top of him," Braun said.

He said he yelled at that animal and it jumped into the creek onto a little island.

"The only thing I could find to hit him with was a 10-foot-long stick in the river, and I swung it as hard as I could," he said. "I think I hit him in the leg and the end of the stick broke off. The cougar ran off into the bushes."

Laschinski and the two other boys ran to help. Braun said Laschinski tended to Andrew with his first-aid kit while Braun and the boys kept the cougar at bay.

"Me and the two oldest boys were heaving rocks into the bushes as fast as we could where the cougar was. Andrew was shook up and going into shock. We carried him on our shoulders back to camp."

They carried Andrew about 2 miles downstream to their camp. Two other campers who were nurses tended to Andrew while another backpacker cut holes into the bottom of his pack to fit Andrew inside. They hurried to their cars at the trailhead and then sped to the hospital.

Braun said he contacted Fish and Wildlife agents who went to the scene Sunday with hunting dogs.

"As soon as they reached the place where Andrew was attacked, they said the dogs went crazy," Braun said. They tracked the cougar, treed it and shot it. Wildlife officials said the animal was a 55-pound female, about 18 months old.

"They told me it was just learning to hunt. They said it probably didn't know any difference between a small deer and a human," Braun said.

Authorities say mountain lions rarely attack people. There have been just 64 such attacks recorded in North America since 1890. Eight of those were in California, most of them during the past three years.

"There is still more of a risk of being hit by lightning," said Mark Palmer of the Mountain Lion Foundation, who blames human encroachment on wild areas for the rise in contacts.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said that while cougar attacks are rare, encounters with the animals seem to be increasing.

The number of cougars has grown, development has extended into cougar habitat, and more people are going into the woods for recreation, the agency said.