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CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Publications Mail Agreement No. 391275
47th Year No. 43 THURS., OCTOBER 25, 2012
GAZETTE NORTH ISLAND
EDITORIAL Page 6
LETTERS Page 7
www.northislandgazette.com NORTH ISLAND LIFE Page 13
SPORTS Page 17
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John Bransfield, Cassidy Mose and Courtney Hamilton prepare for an antibullying candlelight walk to commemorate suicide victim Amanda Todd Friday in Port Hardy. The walk, organized by Hamilton, was one of many held across British Columbia to promote awareness of online bullying. See more photos on page 16.
No more victims
J.R. Rardon
Cougar caught, killed in Port Hardy J.R. Rardon Gazette editor PORT HARDY—A cougar that surprised a pair of workers during a daylight hunt in Port Hardy last week was shot and killed by the Conservation Officer Service later in the day. The big cat was put down about 4 p.m. last Tuesday, Oct. 16, by local Conservation Officer Tanner Beck following a search that included Port Hardy RCMP, a houndsman and a pair of tracking hounds. In a necropsy by Beck, the cougar was found to have pieces of a house cat in its stomach. The officers were responding to
a 9-1-1 call from a pair of workmen who were startled by the cougar’s appearance at about 1:45 p.m., while they performed concrete work on an entryway to a home on Scott Street near the corner of Highland Drive. “I just saw something flash out of the corner of my eye and I thought, ‘That’s too big a tail to be a dog,’” said Richard Sears. Sears and co-worker Ian Henderson walked carefully around their work van and were shocked to find themselves in the front row of a nature documentary. “This cat was booting it past here, and the cougar was right behind it,”
said Henderson. The two watched the cats disappear behind a nearby hedge, and within moments saw the cougar reappear with the smaller cat in its jaws and lope casually toward the driveway where they stood. That prompted the men to clamber into their van and place the 9-1-1 call while the cougar took its prey through a small side yard and leaped a short, chain-link fence to reach the green belt behind the house. “I wasn’t afraid for myself,” said
See page 4 ‘Cougar was healthy female’
Port Hardy RCMP join in the search for a cougar that killed a house cat before being treed and killed last J.R. Rardon Tuesday.
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