The cat dialed back pressure through its crushing jaws, and the friend was able to pull away, fellow cyclists said in an interview one month after the incident east of Seattle.
A group of Seattle-area cyclists who helped one of their own escape the jaws of a cougar recounted their story this weekend, saying they fought the cat and pinned it down.
The woman who was attacked, Keri Bergere, sustained neck and face injuries and was treated at a hospital and released following the Feb. 17 incident on a trail northeast of Fall City, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.
Bergere said she spent five days at an area hospital and was still recovering.
Fish and Wildlife Lt. Erik Olson called the actions of her fellow cyclists “heroic” in the statement. But the extent of the cyclists’ battle with the 75-pound cat wasn’t immediately clear then.
They post it because it’s fucking true. We are prey to bears and large cats. Stop acting like we’re not. They will turn tail usually when we present ourselves as a harder target, but acting like we’re not prey to them is stupid as fuck. It’s also rare for us to be attacked because we have destroyed their habitats and killed most of them off. Mt. Lions are considered threatened species and are just finally making a comeback. It’s like people saying wolves don’t look at us like a walking ham sandwich because there hasn’t been that many attacks…no shit because we killed pretty much all of them off.