Washington state cyclists describe fighting off cougar during attack

A group of cyclists in their 50s and 60s battled with a cougar for 45 minutes after the mountain cat launched at one of their friends and clamped down on her face during a team ride on a vast Washington state trail last month.

The five cyclists recalled the harrowing struggle to pry the beast off their friend using just rocks, sticks and their own hands during the Feb. 17 attack on a trail northeast of Fall City in Washington, according to a recent report.

The friends, all part of the competitive Recycled Cycles Racing team, were 19 miles into their biking trip when the wild animal lunged at 60-year-old Keri Bergere and tackled her into a shallow ditch off the trail with the cougar teeth biting her jaw.  

“I thought my teeth were coming loose, and I was gonna swallow my teeth,” Bergere told KUOW in an interview published Thursday. “I could feel the bones crushing, and I could feel it tearing back.”

“I felt like it was suffocating me,” she also told the station. “I could taste the blood in my mouth.”

Her friends quickly rallied to her defense using sticks and rocks to try to get the male cougar to loosen his grip on Bergere, whose face was forced into the ground. One cyclist stabbed the cat with a small knife and another, Annie Bilotta, 64, attempted to choke the vicious creature.

“That was like choking a rock,” Bilotta told KUOW. “It did absolutely nothing.”

She then tried to pry the cougar’s jaw with her hand.

“I felt it shifting its teeth like it wanted to try to bite me too,” Bilotta said. “I said ‘no, you’re not gonna get both of us.’”

Auna Tietz, 59, dropped a 25-pound rock on the cougar’s head numerous times while trying to avoid hitting her friend. Bergere, still trapped by the cougar, tried to jab her fingers up the animal’s nostrils and in his eyes.

Finally, after 15 minutes, the animal let up and Bergere was able to crawl away.

Tisch Williams, 59, then grabbed the $6,000 bike of 51-year-old Erica Wolf and the group used it to pin down the mountain puma for 30 minutes before a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police officer arrived and shot the creature between the shoulder blades, the outlet reported.

“All these ladies came up with superhuman strength,” said Bergere, who was hospitalized in stable condition, but had noticeable facial injuries.

“They’re teeny ladies, and I know that the Fish & Wildlife shot the final shot to kill it. But these ladies killed that cougar with their bare hands and no weapons,” she also said. “I’m eternally grateful to each one of them.”

The male cougar was about a 1-year-old and weighed roughly 75 pounds, state Fish and Wildlife officials said.

The animal didn’t have rabies or other significant diseases or issues that would lead to aggressive behavior, the department said.