54 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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Out West
Clarence Hall survives life and death cougar attack Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Clarence Hall turned 88 years old this June, and he still sports the felted hat with tooth marks in it that he was wearing 13 years ago when he was attacked by a cougar. “You won’t find too many winter hats with cougar tooth prints in it,” Clarence says casually over lunch in the Co-op cafe in downtown Bella Coola. It’s a miracle he is alive, and even more remarkable how well he has healed from the ordeal that required three hours of surgery, more than 100 stitches, and four days in hospital. Less than a kilometre away from the cafe is where he confronted the big cat on Jan. 24, 2000. It was 10 a.m. in the morning and game warden, Keith Rande, had asked for Clar-
ence’s help in tracking down a problem cougar that had killed a dog in the Nuxalk section of the townsite. Clarence is a hunter of some renown. Between 1984 and 2010, he and his son, David, have taken out 32 cougars from the Bella Coola Valley, and though he was 74 years old at the time, Rande knocked on Clarence’s door to ask for help tracking down the rogue animal. “David and I are under signed contract with the Ministry of Environment to work with the conservation officers and the police to protect the general public from attacks of wild animals,” Clarence says. It was minus four degrees Celsius on that January morning when Clarence made his way to the home of Cecilia Mack near Tatsquan Creek where her dog Kiko had been killed
by a cougar in the wee hours of the night before. “I followed her son Barry to the basement where he showed me his dog, killed by one canine tooth puncture to its skull.” He says Barry informed him that the attack occurred at 2 a.m. and that he had fired three shots at the cougar in the dark and thought he might have hit it. Then the cougar ran off into the bushes. “I now considered my options,” Clarence explains. “I felt it was best to leave my 30.06 rifle in my locked vehicle because I wasn’t hunting. I was waiting for Keith Rande, another hunter, John Willis, and my grandson, Ben Smart, with six hunting hound dogs to arrive. So I decided to scout out the best route for the hunting party to take.” Due to treacherous ice conditions on the
creek and open pockets of water, he decided it would be best not to have the dogs or hunting party cross the ice. As he surveyed the conditions Clarence turned his head and saw an adult cougar not more than 15 metres away at the base of a spruce tree. He quickly retraced his steps toward Cecilia Mack’s residence, and had decided to get in his vehicle and wait for the rest of the hunting party to arrive. “I was within 60 feet of my vehicle when something struck me on my neck below my left ear. It felt like being struck by a baseball bat. Within a split second I was pulled fully backwards onto my back. I didn’t know what hit me, but I felt a warm trickle of blood filling my left ear and running down my neck.” He says the four
large canine teeth of the cougar were fully embedded in the muscles of his neck. With his head pinned to the ground, he saw the cougar out of the corner of his left eye. Then the cougar proceeded to shake its head, which is the normal way for a predator to kill its prey. He says a voice spoke to him, “Clarence, this cougar is going to kill you.” Clarence credits the presence of the Holy Spirit within him for making all his mental faculties extremely sharp and alert. “I was reminded that the Holy Spirit is a billion times faster than a cougar.” Realizing that he had only seconds to live, Clarence was reminded what someone had told him if he was ever attacked by a dog. “If you place your hand behind the bottom canine teeth you will render the animal
helpless.” He immediately placed his right hand over the lower jaw of the cougar. “My thumb, forefinger, and index finger were behind the canine teeth. I very easily pushed downwards and released the bottom canine teeth from my neck. I pushed upwards, and released the upper canine teeth as well.” He envisioned the cougar’s front claws ripping his belly open, so with his right hand he pulled the animal’s head, neck and shoulder over his chest, rendering the front claws useless as he pinned them to his chest. “I instantly threw my left arm around the cougar’s neck and shoulder.” Throughout the fight Clarence kept calling for help, not knowing if anyone was within hearing distance. “I was very sur-
prised how I had managed to control both the teeth and front claws, however, my right hand was being chewed to pieces.” He came up with a strategy to release his right hand from the cougar’s mouth and put his right arm around the animal’s neck and turn its nose into the snow and apply all the pressure he could to its head until it quit breathing. But that didn’t happen. When he released pressure on the cougar’s lower jaw, it immediately began attacking the top of his head. After striking and biting Clarence’s head a couple of times, it seemed the cougar spoke to him in plain English: “You’re the toughest critter I’ve ever attacked during all my six years on Planet Earth!” See SCARS Page 55
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