A wiry man who killed a cougar after a vicious fight has regrets about using his pocketknife to defend himself.
While Dave Parker, a six-foot, 165-pound resident of Port Alice, B.C., is thankful that he survived his bloody battle with the cougar, he wonders whether he provoked the cat by pulling out the knife, his daughter said yesterday.
During a hike near the Vancouver Island village of Port Alice, Mr. Parker paused to rest during a downpour when the adult male cougar, perched on a rock shelf above him on a gravel road, pounced down beside him, Jennifer Parker said in relaying her father's account of Thursday's attack.
A startled Mr. Parker fell into a ditch. The cougar jumped on his back and then ripped his scalp down over his eyes. The retired mill worker also broke the left side of his jaw and cheekbone on a rock and suffered puncture wounds to his arms and back as they scuffled.
"He thinks his biggest mistake was actually going for his knife," Ms. Parker said. "When he did that, he left his neck exposed and the cougar lunged, and he had to throw his head in the way to protect his neck -- which is when it bit him."
That bite crunched the right side of his jaw and fractured facial bones near his eyes, injuries that will require at least two years of reconstructive surgery to repair.
With blood in his eyes, Mr. Parker couldn't see his foe, but managed to use his knife to jab the animal twice in the back and once in its leg. The cat backed off, allowing Mr. Parker to stab it to death in the neck.
Ms. Parker said she can understand why her father would replay the battle in his mind, but believes it was the only way for him to survive after such a brutal attack.
"If he hadn't gone for the knife, who knows what would have happened. It's a catch-22. You've got a cougar on you. You're bleeding profusely."
Mr. Parker, 61, remained in serious but stable condition yesterday after undergoing plastic surgery on Friday.
After the attack, Mr. Parker walked one kilometre to a log-sorting area where a man drove him to the local hospital. He was then taken to nearby Port Hardy and flown to Victoria.
Brent Jang