A runner identified as, Travis Kauffman, who killed a mountain lion with his bare hands, has finally spoken out about the incredible ordeal.
31-year-old Travis Kauffman describes going for a hike and hearing the sound of pine needles rustling, then within seconds the lion pounced on him and then began a three-minute battle for life. He said;
It was going up towards my face so I threw up my hands to kind of block my face, at which point it grabbed onto my hand and wrist and from there it started to claw at my face and neck.
“And that’s when kind of my fear response turned into more of a fight response.
“Because I’m a recent cat owner, I know that the back claws are pretty dangerous when it comes down to an attack. And I was pretty worried about its claws just sinking into my my stomach and groin area.
“I was able to shift my weight and get a foot on its neck…I stepped on its neck with my right foot and just slowly after a few minutes I thought I would be getting close and then it would start thrashing again and I had a few more scratches that resulted from those thrashes at that point, and I’d say another couple minutes later it finally stopped moving.
A spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Rebecca Ferrell, revealed examinations of the juvenile mountain lion confirmed it had been choked, and said the man did the right thing by fighting back. Ferrell said:
“It’s definitely not something you hear every day.
“We know it sounds hard to believe, but his survival instinct kicked in and he did what he had to do.”
