WARNING: This story contains graphic images of injury.
When Joel Anstet let his big beagle loose in the backyard of his home in Ashcroft, British Columbia, earlier this month, he thought it would just be another late-night pee for his canine friend Apollo.
He did not expect the traumatic events that followed.
“All of a sudden I heard a loud bang and it sounded like my dog … like the wind was knocked out of him,” Anstet said on CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops.
“I heard a little yelp and it sounded like my dog passed out,” he continued. “I ran over there and turned on the light on my mobile phone – and I noticed there was a big cat on it.”
Unsure of what kind of cat it was, Anstet went into fight mode to save his dog and ended up with injuries to his hands and arms.
The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service confirmed it was a lynx, the first the agency has seen in Ashcroft this year.
Lynx sightings are rare in the Thompson area. Local conservationists say they haven’t seen the species in Ashcroft for more than a decade.
A rare conflict with a bobcat
Anstet said he didn’t hesitate to protect Apollo from the lynx, which he said was twice the size of his dog.
“I jumped on the cat,” he said. “I tried to put my hand down his throat, but every time I did, he kept biting me and spinning his head.”
“[The cat] bit my forearm… bit my fingertips, bit my other index finger that he could [now] they barely move.”
Joel Anstet was left with injuries to his arms and hands after saving his dog Apollo from a lynx. (Submitted by Joel Anstet)
He said the bite on his forearm went to the bone and Apollo was bitten five times.
Anstet said he kept calling for help, but it was pitch black and his neighbors were probably asleep.
After noticing that Apollo had gotten away, Anstet said he picked up the lynx and threw it over a high fence into his neighbor’s yard.
Anstet said he could still hear the cat hissing and meowing as he ran along the fence, so he hurried back to his house.
It wasn’t until he got inside that he noticed his wounds. He immediately went to the Royal Inland Hospital, where he was stitched up and told he needed a series of rabies shots.
A precaution against cats
Anstet has put up lights in his backyard and says he’ll be walking Apollo with some kind of weapon from now on to ward off predators.
Kamloops-based conservation officer Jared Conaty, who investigated Anstet’s case, said his colleagues set a trap in the backyard but were unable to catch the lynx after the July 20 attack.
Conaty said it’s unusual to spot a lynx in a residential neighborhood like Anstet.
“Wrong place, wrong time for all countries,” he said. “We certainly don’t expect to encounter these kinds of wildlife when we live in places like this.”
The Nature Conservancy is asking people to make sure their backyards are free of lynx attractants and to keep their dogs on leashes at all times.
Anyone who spots wildlife in or around communities is urged to report it through the Conservation Office Service’s 24-hour hotline at 1-877-952-7277.
Daybreak Kamloops10:21 Ashcroft man shares story of saving his dog from a lynx
An incredible story of survival. We spoke to an Ashcroft man who managed to save his dog from a lynx and lived to tell the tale.
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