Puppy killed in Vancouver Island cougar attack despite owner's attempts to save him

A young dog was killed in front of its owners near Tahsis, B.C., last Thursday, despite their attempts to save the puppy.

"The cougar came out of the bushes straight at me like a freight train," said Marta Kasper. 

She and her husband Derrick Kasper had gone to Ceepeecee Lake to walk their two dogs — a full-grown Siberian husky, Sookie, and their young German Shepherd, Kitty.

The couple had just gotten out of their truck when the cougar attacked. 

"It went past the dog, came straight for me, and at the last second veered left and grabbed my puppy," said Marta Kasper.  

She described the cougar as the "biggest thing I've ever seen in my life." 

Without thinking, she immediately tried to save the young dog.

"I jumped on its back and tried to grab the throat. I felt my hand squish in and then it felt like I was trying to choke a piece of wood," she said.

Her husband was on the other side of the truck, fixing up a fishing rod, when he looked over and saw his wife straddling the cougar's back.

Marta Kasper said her Siberian husky joined in and tried to defend her by biting the cougar. 

"Then Derrick grabbed me by the scruff, the back of the neck and pulled me off the cougar, and I could just feel my hands sliding off the cougar's body and it took off with the dog in the bush," she said.

The entire attack took about 90 seconds. The puppy was never seen again. 

The Kaspers said they have lived in the area for decades and have had many cougar encounters, but nothing like this. 

"All I can keep playing back in my head is frame by frame by frame of him coming straight at me, so wide and so powerful, with his mouth open," she said.

The couple called conservation officers, who tracked down and killed the cougar within 20 minutes after they arrived. 

Despite the officers' efforts, Derrick Kasper said he won't be able to go back to Ceepeecee Lake for a long time. 

With files from CHEK News