Hiker Kills Rabid Bobcat With Geologist’s Pick
Katrina Mangin and Rich Thompson of Tucson, Arizona, often hike in the mountains. On a recent trip into the Santa Rita Mountains they spotted a bobcat, in the open, staring at them.
The cat’s fearless attitude told Thompson immediately that the cat was sick, so he yelled a warning to Mangin. Instantly the cat attacked. It hit Mangin, scratching and biting into her leg. She grabbed the cat, pulled it off her leg and threw it aside. The cat quickly attacked again.
Thompson knocked the cat off Mangin with his backpack, thus turning the attack from Mangin to himself. Thompson fought the cat with his packboard, but each time he knocked the cat down, it came back.
During the struggle, which covered an eternity and some 100 yards of mountainside, Thompson knew they had a rabid bobcat on their hands and it was now a battle to the death. He managed to grab a stick and pin the cat to the ground with it. He quickly dug into his pack, found his geologist’s hammer and killed the cat.
Thompson and Mangin were torn up pretty badly and needed immediate medical treatment. They headed for town. There they were patched up and given the first of their series of rabies shots.
Thompson was fortunate to have his geologist’s hammer with him, but it was only normal, since he is with the Geosciences Department at the University of Arizona. Mangin is a marine biologist at U of A.
I can’t help think that if the couple had been armed with a firearm, and knew how to use it, they could have saved themselves a lot of pain, terror and worry. They saw the cat before it attacked, and just such abnormal behavior – being unafraid of humans in the daylight – would have been enough of a clue that the cat was sick, and enough justification to launch a preemptive strike.
http://www.predatorxtreme.com:80/breakingnews.asp?NewsID=135
Katrina Mangin and Rich Thompson of Tucson, Arizona, often hike in the mountains. On a recent trip into the Santa Rita Mountains they spotted a bobcat, in the open, staring at them.
The cat’s fearless attitude told Thompson immediately that the cat was sick, so he yelled a warning to Mangin. Instantly the cat attacked. It hit Mangin, scratching and biting into her leg. She grabbed the cat, pulled it off her leg and threw it aside. The cat quickly attacked again.
Thompson knocked the cat off Mangin with his backpack, thus turning the attack from Mangin to himself. Thompson fought the cat with his packboard, but each time he knocked the cat down, it came back.
During the struggle, which covered an eternity and some 100 yards of mountainside, Thompson knew they had a rabid bobcat on their hands and it was now a battle to the death. He managed to grab a stick and pin the cat to the ground with it. He quickly dug into his pack, found his geologist’s hammer and killed the cat.
Thompson and Mangin were torn up pretty badly and needed immediate medical treatment. They headed for town. There they were patched up and given the first of their series of rabies shots.
Thompson was fortunate to have his geologist’s hammer with him, but it was only normal, since he is with the Geosciences Department at the University of Arizona. Mangin is a marine biologist at U of A.
I can’t help think that if the couple had been armed with a firearm, and knew how to use it, they could have saved themselves a lot of pain, terror and worry. They saw the cat before it attacked, and just such abnormal behavior – being unafraid of humans in the daylight – would have been enough of a clue that the cat was sick, and enough justification to launch a preemptive strike.
http://www.predatorxtreme.com:80/breakingnews.asp?NewsID=135
