Westerly News
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Serving Tofino and Ucluelet
COVERAGE: Tofino Council says ‘no’ to dancing, karaoke or past-midnight hours for Wolf in the Fog PAGE 12
Tuesdays at 8pm July & August Clayoquot Community The atre Free Admission
C L AYOQUOT SOUND OF FREEDOM
July 8, 2015 Wednesday
$1.25 [INCLUDING TAX]
Up In Smoke
SALMON BEACH BEACH
INSIDE Victoria THIS WEEK: man shoots cougar after it attacks dachshund ANDREW BAILEY
Wildfire felt on West Coast, in US; still air keeps flames at bay on Sproat Lake Staff reports
Westerly News By Monday, the mushrooming Dog Mountain forest fire at Sproat Lake, near Port Alberni, B.C. had grown to 125 hectares, one-hundred-fold times its size on Saturday. Despite technically being in the “fog zone,” dry conditions prompted the District of Tofino to ban campfires as of Wednesday for
The District of Tofino. “This is due to the lack of substantial rain in the last few months and minimal fog,” said a release from Fire Chief John Gilmour. The ban did not apply to portable cooking stoves or campfire apparatus that are ULC or CSA approved, and use gas, propane, liquid fuels or briquettes, with a flame length of 15 centimetres or less.
Fireworks, burning barrels or cages, Tiki torches, sky lanterns, and the use of air curtain burners (forced air burner systems)are prohibited.. On Sunday, skies in Ucluelet had a coral tinge as stagnant air pushed some smoke particles westward to Vancouver Island’s West Coast, but much more went See SPROAT LAKE Page 6
Westerly News A tourist shot and killed a cougar that attacked his dog on Salmon Beach on July 2. Shawn Hanson, a 38 year-old Victoria local, had just returned to his friends’ cabin from a fishing trip when he came face to face with the cougar around 4 p.m. Hanson had brought a salmon to a cleaning table outside when his dog Bailey, a one-year-old miniature dachshund, was grabbed. “As soon as I put the salmon down, a cougar whipped out of the bushes from about 15 feet away and snatched her,” he said. “I’ve encountered wildlife quite a bit but never anything like that…I didn’t know really what was going on I thought it might have been another dog that was attacking her because I just caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye and then it buggered off into the bushes.” He said he had no time to think before chasing after the animal. “I just started screaming…and booked it straight into the bush full-bore,” he said. He said he chased the cougar about 20 feet into thick bush before it slowed and he was able to grab a hold of it. “I grabbed on to its rear end with one hand and then reached up and grabbed my dog with the other and when I had a grip on the dog I reached back and punched the cougar in the face and at that point it dropped the dog,” he said. “I gave it a good sock in the face…it gave it a pretty good stunning and it opened its mouth and dropped the dog.” Hanson said he cautiously carried Bailey out of the bush away from the cougar. “I wasn’t sure if it was going to start slashing at me or anything like that,” he said. See COUGAR, Page 5
WEST COAST only Canadian stop for Danish reality TV show “Traveling with my Mum” PAGE 10
BIKE-A-THON from Nanaimo to Tuff raises $ for cancer fighter; local woman hurt during right after getting hit by motorhome PAGE 2
Raising standards In salmon farming
Sustainable Aquaculture We hold seven third-party certifications, more than any other salmon farmer in the world
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