MAPLE RIDGE — One dog is injured and another dead after two cougar attacks in Maple Ridge this week.
The first happened at a popular Maple Ridge hiking area Sunday evening.
Andrew Dodge was hiking with his dog, Tula — a three-year-old shepherd-husky cross — in the Malcolm Knapp University of B.C. Research Forest reserve, next to Golden Ears Provincial Park, when Tula sprinted ahead. All of a sudden, Dodge said, he “heard a big fight and lots of yelping.”
Running as quickly as he could in the direction of the sound, and shouting Tula’s name, Dodge found her emerging from the forest “very distressed” and injured.
“She took off back down the trail and I ran after her until we reached the car park at Mike Lake,” he said.
It was there that Dodge noticed Tula “had been bleeding in the neck area.”
“She was very weak but made it back to the car, where I took her to the emergency animal hospital in Langley,” Dodge said.
It was determined that Tula’s wounds were caused by a cougar attack, and Dodge said he notified a conservation officer.
“I am very thankful [Tula] is alive,” Dodge said. “We hike that trail on a regular basis and have never come across any wildlife in over a year.”
A cougar encounter early Wednesday did not have a happy ending.
A man who lives near the Malcolm Knapp University of B.C. Research Forest reserve awoke at 4 a.m. to hear his black lab barking, police said.
The dog’s body was dragged into the woods.
Both Ridge Meadows RCMP and a conservation officer went to the scene.
The cougar, a thin female, was tracked and shot.
Conservation officer James Kelly said it’s impossible to know whether the same cougar was responsible for both incidents.
