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Friday, Jan. 28, 2000
Cougar rips up hunter
Man saved by pal with rifle
He came within one inch of being killed by a cougar, but Old Clarence, a legendary hunter in Bella Coola, B.C., is bouncing back from his hospital bed.
He's got 100 stitches in his head, the doctors were sewing him up for 21/2 hours, and his arm is bitten and swollen like a pumpkin.
But from his hospital bed yesterday, Clarence Hall, 74, posed for the battery of cameras lining up at his bedside, and told his terrifying tale to any reporter who'd listen.
Known throughout the coastal valley as Old Clarence, he was called in when a cougar killed his friend Barry Mack's pet dog Kiko in a yard in Bella Coola, more than 450 km north of Vancouver.
One minute, Clarence saw the cougar, the next it had doubled back behind him, grabbed him and sunk its teeth into his neck, pulling him down backwards.
"It bit my neck three times and was not only biting, but pulling and shaking my head," he said.
Conservation officer Keith Rende with the cougar that attacked Clarence Hall (CP PHOTO / Ric Ernst)
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Then the cougar went for his arm.
"I knew in a few seconds I'd lose my hand, so I pulled my hand out of its mouth, and immediately it grabbed me on the top of my head."
Clarence hollered for help -- his friend Mack heard him.
Mack shot the cougar from point-blank range and it died still attached to Clarence's head.
"I tried to lift its head up but its biggest tooth was still stuck in the skin of my skull," he said.
Clarence, who's hunted cougars for 34 years, said this one got the drop on him because he left his rifle in his truck at first.
"I didn't want to upset people by letting them see me carrying a rifle, and it nearly cost me my life," he said.
-- Sun Media
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