Posted on 05/17/2012 4:11:46 PM PDT by SJackson
Wildlife experts frequently remind campers, hunters and hikers what to do should they encounter a mountain lion. Hitting the big cat with a frying pan is probably at the bottom of the list.
Nevertheless, a Chino Valley, Ariz., man grabbed his cast-iron pan — his closest weapon — to fend off a cougar after it attacked his dog earlier this month.
According to The (Prescott, Ariz.) Daily Courier, Brandon Arnold, 24, was camping with his girlfriend, Tessa Gerdes, and seven other friends — including three children — early in the morning on May 4 in the Tonto National Forest when a mountain lion attacked Arnold’s dog, Apollo, a 90-pound lab-pit bull mix.
Arnold’s friend, Donald Jones, grabbed the cougar by the neck thinking it was another camper’s dog, then (wisely) let go once he realized what he had grabbed. The puma high-tailed it into the woods, with Apollo giving chase, so Arnold and Jones gave chase with whatever weapons they could grab; Arnold grabbed a cast-iron frying pan, and Jones grabbed a table.
Arnold reached the animals first, and once he got a clear swing, he took it, smacking the cat in the head.
“The first time I had a clear shot I just swung the pan and hit him right on the head,” Arnold told The Daily Courier. “It was like a cartoon — he just kind of stopped and I hit him again. He got stiff and fell over.”
Arnold walloped the stunned cougar again, knocking it to the ground, then popped it several more times for good measure before another friend shot it a couple times — just to be sure.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department reported Monday that the cougar tested positive for rabies. Luckily, none of the campers were scratched or bitten. Apollo suffered a few wounds, but thankfully had his rabies shots and should be released after a 45-day quarantine.
What type of frying pan did the mountain lion have?
Hehehehe.
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Don't mess with the cook.
/johnny
Ping
I live in a sparsely populated area of private properties full of mountain lions, but they don’t get near people here. It could be, that they tend to more likely go after vacationers in the more populated parks and the like. Familiarity, maybe...?
I’ll share some information that I learned in a class over 30 years ago.
When an animal with a large-enough mouth attacks, don’t pull your hand away. Try to jam your hand/fist down the animal’s throat. They let go real fast and run away.
Cat had rabies. Good thing it got panned (and shot) before it could bite.
They could have ran over it with their car just to really, really make sure.........LOL!
Just shows that being armed with most any weapon is better then not being armed.
It would take some nerve to try that with, say, a grizzly bear.
This one was rabid, different circumstance.
The class was aimed at domestic animals. I should have referenced that. :-) Although a cougar is not a domestic animal, its bite is about the size of a large dog.
Good advice, hard to remember. Don’t want to be in the circumstance to take advantage.
Ruh-roh....hopefully the guy didn’t violate the “48-hour frying-pan purchase law”....or the “one-frying-pan-a-month” law.....
It sounds like the guy toting the table didn’t get any licks in.
Mountain lions are cooking now?
Looking forward to the new show “Cooking with Cougars”.
Mountain lion = dangerous
Rabid Mountain Lion = KYA goodbye (unless you have a frying pan)
Yeah, I would hate to use my T-Fal it would probably bend.
Though it’s great stuff if used for and cared for properly.
Cast iron was a good thing. Obviously the animal must not have seen any Road Runner or Bugs Bunny cartoons.
:)
So, was it a mountain lion, a cougar or a puma or are all those the same thing?
I wouldn’t do it other than in complete unarmed (first mistake) desparation. The advice usually includes grabbing the tongue to induce a gag reflex. Guess it’s better to lose an arm than your head, but I question the effectiveness. I’d go with a firearm or spray.
You missed a word, “Rabies”, any animal with that is unpredictable and dangerous.
Same thing, puma concolor. Probably are some sub species.
Never bring fangs and claws to a frying pan fight?
Yes. Also called a catamount or panther some places.
Please add me to your list. IMO it’s important to teach dogs of the outdoor variety not to chase, and to stop on command.
ping
Just your typical outdoors ping.
Oh oh, looks like we’ll be registering frying pans next.
T Fal?
This one had rabies.
Bugs Bunny to Pete Puma: “How many lumps do you want?”
Pete Puma to Bugs Bunny: “Oh, three or four...”
What brand of frying pay would be recommended? Cast iron, stainless steel, copper, non-stick or stick?
I remember that one!
Lesson to be remembered: never tick off a guy that has a cast iron frying pan. LOL!
Thanks for the ping, Fly.
If you’re buying new, I’d go with Lodge cast iron, don’t need preseasoned if you’re using it to smack animals. Auctions and house sales will get you better stuff cheaper though.
If it really did have rabies, then the doctor should have put all involved through rabies treatment. The hissing done by the cat sprays saliva droplets into the air and one can contract rabies like that.
Friend in Calif. was bitten by a rabid skunk and both the son and husband who help kill the skunk had to take treatments. It is no longer the painful thing it once was and they all survived.
later in the same cartoon...
Bugs to Pete: “Do you want sugar in you tea?”
Pete to Bugs: “No thanks; it gives me a headache...”
funny stuff.
The problem with cats and bears is that unlike a dog, they have lots of weapons besides teeth.
Cats will likely disembowel you with their back feet if you get a hold of their tongue or frustrate their bite.
I like the frying pan option.
You deserve a special ping!
How do mountain lions in the wild catch rabies? Honest question from a clueless NYC boy.
The Cat had just gotten the pan from Pampered Chef.
This was drilled into me by my second husband, a dog trainer/handler in the military. Fortunately - it saved me serious injury when my police trained German Shephard suffered a fit of some kind and attacked me. It only lasted seconds but my hand shoved down his throat kept him from reaching my neck.
Was the frying pan registered ?
The left may now try to ban frying pans ?
Clicked on the thread just to see how long it took before this popped up :)
Many years ago, I had a ditzy landlady, who had a really stupid dog. A couple of years after I moved, I saw in the paper that she had been camping with her dog, and it was attacked by a bobcat (I think). She fought it off with a slipper!
I think jamming your hand down their throat works with Anacondas also to break their bite.
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