Female Cyclists Fight Off Cougar Attacking Friend With Bikes, Rocks, Bare Hands
An extraordinarily plucky 60-year-old woman is lucky to be alive after surviving a brutal, 15-minute cougar attack on a trail near Seattle, WA last month.
Keri Bergere was about 19 miles into a biking trek on Tokul Creek trail with a group of friends on Feb. 17, five women in their 50s and 60s who are part of a competitive team called Recycled Cycles Racing, when they spotted a pair of cougars crossing the trail. One of the women, Auna Tietz, began yelling “Cougar, cougar!” when she saw the apex predators, in an attempt to scare the animal off.
The larger of the cougars, possibly a mother or sibling, ran off, but the second cougar weighing 75-pounds and estimated to be about a year old, lunged at Bergere and knocked her onto the ground.
“Looking to my right, I saw the cougar’s face. It was just a split second, and he tackled me off my bike,” Bergere told Seattle’s KUOW about a month after the incident. Before she had time to react, the cougar pinned her into a shallow ditch and bit down on her jaw. “I thought my teeth were coming loose, and I was gonna swallow my teeth. I could feel the bones crushing, and I could feel it tearing back.”
But then, the other four women sprang into action, attempting to wrangle the big cat off their friend. One of them repeatedly stabbed the cougar with a two-inch knife while Annie Bilotta, 64, tried choking the cat. “That was like choking a rock,” Bilotta recalled. “It did absolutely nothing.”
“The cougar had his claws pretty much around her, in attack mode,” said Auna Tietz, 59. “Like, ‘I will have my prey now, and within a couple of minutes I will eat her.'”
Tietz then found a 25-pound boulder which she used to repeatedly hit the cougar on the head. “I had to pretty much lift it in a squat position with both of my hands, and then let it fall from about a foot and a half up,” she explained, while the other women continued beating the animal with rocks, sticks, and whatever else they could find.
“I was swallowing so much blood,” Bilotta said. “I just thought it was done. But then I got another little surge, you know, live to ride one more day.”
After hitting the cougar about four or five times, it finally began to wear down and the women were able to pull Bergere to safety while another one of the women, Tisch Williams, 59, grabbed one of their bikes, a $6,000 cyclocross, and used it to pin down the animal. One of the women called 911; until an officer from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police arrived on the scene about 30 minutes later, they managed to keep the animal subdued.
The officer then shot the cougar between the shoulder blades while the women still had it pinned to the ground.
“We are thankful that the victim is stable after the incident this weekend,” WDFW Lieutenant Erik Olson said in a statement. “The people on scene took immediate action to render aid, and one of our officers was able to arrive within minutes to continue medical aid and coordinate transport. We may have had a very different outcome without their heroic efforts.”
“All these ladies came up with superhuman strength,” added Bergere. “They’re teeny ladies, and I know that the Fish and Wildlife shot the final shot to kill it. But these ladies killed that cougar with their bare hands and no weapons. I’m eternally grateful to each one of them.”
Typically, cougars are reclusive animals and tend to stay away from humans, making the attack unusual. An examination at Washington State University found “no evidence of significant diseases or abnormalities” that would cause the aggressive behavior, and it likewise tested negative for rabies.
In the last century, there have only been 20 recorded cougar attacks in Washington state and two that were fatal. It’s a testament to the quick thinking of the four women that it’s not now three fatalities.
