Cougar attacks conservation officer in West Kootenay

SALMO (NEWS 1130) -A West Kootney conservation officer suffered minor scratches after he was attacked by an emaciated cougar which tried to climb into a West Kootenay home through the window Tuesday night.

Deputy chief Chris Doyle with the BC Conservation Officer Service says the call came in from a home in Salmo, east of Castlegar, around 9:15 p.m. The responding officer had just euthanized an adult cougar which had been hit by a pickup truck about 10 kilometres away.

When the officer arrived at the home, the juvenile cougar jumped him without provocation, and he was forced to kill it to stop the attack.

Doyle says it’s the first time in his 23-year career that a conservation officer has been injured by a cougar.

“With the current snow conditions in the West Kootenays, it’s quite deep, so it makes it difficult for predators such as cougars to be able to prey,” Inspector Tobe Sprado explains. “Then they start to come into communities looking for an easier food source, generally pets.”

The officer has since returned to work.

Sprado says they have seen a spike in cougar sightings in the area, with 10 of their 14 complaints this year happening in February.

Conservation officer Todd Hunter says the Lower Mainland had not experienced a similar jump in complaints, but sightings generally do go up in the winter as weather forces predators to expand their territory in search of constantly moving prey.

Conservation officers remind people to be alert, keep children close and pets inside at night. In the event of a sighting, keep far away, make yourself look larger, back away while not turning your back or running and if attacked, fight back.