Lilly overcomes fear of Cougars that attacked her!

[WWC]

Stevens County Sheriff's Office

Bravest Girl On Earth!
9 year old Lily was attacked and severely injured by a cougar on May 28th in the Fruitland area of Stevens County. She was hospitalized and received over 400 stitches.
Today Lily was back in the woods in an awesome form of therapy and education.  Bart George, wildlife program manager for the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, runs a research study which aims to keep cougars from being habituated to humans and livestock.  In this study cougars are collared, released, then tracked further with hounds. No cougars are killed in the study.  The goal is to test methods of aversive conditioning that will ultimately result in less human/livestock conflict and result in removing fewer cougars from the landscape.  Stevens County Wildlife Specialist Jeff Flood and houndsman Bruce Duncan frequently help George with the study.
George, Flood and Duncan were in contact with Lily’s family and invited her to accompany them to remove the collar from a cougar they had been studying.  As you can see from the photo, Lily has faced any fears she may have head on and had a fantastic experience doing so.  The cougar was safely released back into the woods. For more information on the cougar study go to https://kalispeltribe.com/blog/2022/04/20/bart-george/

[lewy]

Glad to hear she is doin well! Good on the officers to reach out and give her that experience. At the end of the day tho, we need to control lion numbers plain and simple……

[timberfaller]

Part of "game management" to be successful there has to be predator management too!  Something college doesn't teach!

Glad she is doing better.

[KFhunter]

That's amazing, what a trooper that girl is holy cow!

[Dan-o]

That's amazing, what a trooper that girl is holy cow!

 

[trophyhunt]

Great story and really awesome idea, bart, you are a stand up, hell of a guy! 

[Angry Perch]

Wow. That is one courageous young lady.

[WAcoyotehunter]

Great story and really awesome idea, bart, you are a stand up, hell of a guy! 

Thanks, wdfw enforcement staff should get credit for arranging it.  Hopefully it's part of the healing process for her

[trophyhunt]

Great story and really awesome idea, bart, you are a stand up, hell of a guy! 

Thanks, wdfw enforcement staff should get credit for arranging it.  Hopefully it's part of the healing process for her

Well thanks to all the staff too!!  I imagine it was a very special moment!! 

[RobinHoodlum]

Looks like there's 2 threads on this topic. But I think this is so awesome, I just wanted to comment again and say thanks to all. This small gesture likely makes a huge difference is this girl's emotional recovery

[Karl Blanchard]

Way to go Bart! Kids are so much tougher than we give them credit for! Way to go Lilly for facing your fears head on!