Our First Cougar Attack
WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTOS AT THE END
January 12, 2006 was a rainy day in Southern Oregon. I was working on some morning farm chores which included updating some computer records that I had on the goats and sheep prior to shearing and delivering the lambs and kids. By 9:00 am I had been back and forth to our barn several times to feed and retrieve various paperwork that I had recorded weights and shots on. During my prowling about the barn I had a conversation with Tasha our old great pyrenees about why she was not allowing any of the does and ewes outside of the barn-keeping them in with her absloutley silent bark-she looked at me as if I should know. I told her she was a silly girl and really it was me who was silly-I should have realized that there was a reason. Now what you all need to understand is that what happened next probably NEVER would have occured if we were able to utilize our livestock guardian dogs in the normal manner. Because we have neighbors who complain that our dogs bark too much we are currently required to keep our three dogs that have an intact bark inside at night and leave our debarked dogs outside. We harbor some frustration that this event occured because we know it could have been totally prevented. That is a whole 'nother web page!! Our barn is less than 100 feet from our patio doors.
A week prior I had moved our Buck out of the Girls pen in preparation for shearing, lambing and kidding season. He was moved to an area with a de-barked tibetan mastiff bitch named Rishi. Just as I had teased Tasha, I talked to Rishi because she kept trying to put Malto in the calf hutch-he was lying in the door chewing his cud, she settled for lying down just behind him. If it was not for Rishi we would have lost him that day. I had come back in, sat down at the computer when my 3 dogs that could bark started barking furiously from their night time home on the enclosed back porch. They would not stop. Now our situation with our neighbors had trained us to tell the dogs to quiet down prior to checking out the situation. Which is what I proceed to do- Luckily for Malto they would not-they were in my face until the lightbulb went on and I realized that something must be very wrong with their goats and/sheep-so I put on my raincoat and headed for the doors. I could see before I even had gone out side that Malto was seriously injured. At first I thought his head was missing. As I got closer I realized he had huge blood loss and upon examination big holes in his neck behind his horn base. Rishi was nudging him trying to get him to stand up-she was agitated and running around the pen barking her silent bark all of her guard hair standing on edge. At first I thought that maybe he had been shot, then I wondered if Rishi had injured him-I dismissed this because the amount of blood loss was large-she would have it on her fur-regardless, I backed my Excursion in, loaded him into a large dog crate and took off for the vet-calling them on my way in. I ended up getting transferred to a different vet because both of ours had emergencies on the table.
Poor Malto, he made awful noises as I loaded him into the crate. He stopped making any noise at all about half way to the vet-I thought he had died. It was only after I helped get him unloaded and they directed me to the waiting room did I realize that I was covered in blood, mud, muck and buck smell....who cares he was still alive! After about a half an hour the vet came out to me and asked me if I lived in an area where there were cougars. I shook my head yes-and asked are you sure that it wasn't something else? They were positive that it was a large cat attack. After they had gotten him shaved the claw scratches were visable on his neck as well as the bite mark. His horn base had protected him somewhat. Malto had to have his ears stapled back on and had a grapefruit sized hematoma on one side of his neck. He was on antibiotics for six months and his neck is permanently arched from the massive amount of scar tissue that has built up even with the physical therapy we gave him. To eat he has to get on his knees because of his lack of Range of motion.
What we estimate happened is that because of his very strong and aromatic buck smell-it masked the presence of the dog from the cougar-and Rishi was able to come charging out of the calf hutch and startle the cat into dropping the goat and into leaving. Malto had been dragged for about 15 feet. The cougar must have been waiting on top of the barn or the horse trailer. And I had been walking back and forth right there all morning!!!
My dogs were not behaving in a silly or inappropriate manner at all-If the dogs that were out barking their silent barks could have been heard that cat would not have thought about coming in-the dogs well, they were trying their best to protect their stock from a predator the best that they could without their barks!!!
The following pictures were taken two days after Malto was attacked by the cougar. Some of the swelling had gone down and he received a bath to reduce his buck smell while at the vet.
Pictured below is a cougar that was in the process of devouring a goat herd that belongs to some friends of ours. This cat was dispatched on his way back to dig up part of his kill that was buried in their corral. We received a call for one of our LGD's-and luckily we were able to them out with an experienced adult dog. They have since added two more LGD's and now have one pyr and two Tibetan Mastiff's protecting their stock and they have not suffered another attack since. Their attacks also happened very close to their home. When these cats get a taste for domesticated livestock they become very brave
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