Two Children Injured In Cougar Attacks

A cougar dragged an 8-year-old boy by his neck into the bush in southeastern British Columbia on Sunday before his father managed to drive off the big cat.

It was the second cougar attack on a child in the province in the same day.

Lance Beingessner was taken to hospital in Kelowna, then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

The boy, whose neck was punctured by the cougar, is in stable condition.

In Lytton, a 5-year-old girl needed hospital treatment after she was attacked while playing on a swing in front of her home in the Fraser Canyon town.

Afterward, the cougar fled into the bush.

Christine Frank’s home is on the outskirts of Lytton on the TransCanada Highway about 100 miles northeast of Vancouver.

Cougars have killed 10 people in British Columbia, all of them children, since 1900.

Most cougar attacks occur on Vancouver Island, which has the highest concentration of British Columbia’s cougars. There have been 15 cougar attacks on Vancouver Island since 1970, including three deaths.