A heroic mother has gone viral after taking on a mountain lion that threatened to kill her seven-year-old son - and succeeding.
Chelsea Bromley heard her young son Zack screaming outside their home in Lakeview Park, in Vancouver Island in Canada, and rushed to his aid to discover that the boy was being attacked by a cougar.
But while some people might be tempted to call emergency services - potentially wasting precious time in the process - her husband Kevin Bromley revealed how the mom went into full Mama Bear mode.
"She jumped it," Kevin explained to CBC, revealing that Chelsea was forced to pry the animal's jaw open in order to save her son. "I think any mom would do that. It's that selfless love."
Speaking to Global News, Kevin added: "She's beside herself. If it had been a bigger cougar, it would have been over."
"She jumped on top of this thing, but it just wouldn’t let go of Zack’s forearm so she then had to pry this cougar’s jaw open. She told me she couldn’t do it for two or three seconds but then she screamed ‘help,’ and it just let go and ran off. And there was blood everywhere."
"It hit the mesh fence [separating our house from the neighbour’s], which gave Zack enough time to bolt, but [the cougar] came through the mesh and then jumped on him," Kevin explained of the moment the cougar spotted the boy, and attacked him. Zack was airlifted to hospital following the attack, but is currently making his recovery at his favourite place - his grandmother's house.
Suffering wounds to his head, neck and arm, Zack was released from hospital last Sunday, and his dad says that the gravity of what happened has not been lost on the youngster.
"He's figured out that was pretty close to near death. He's old enough to grasp that. And that's a big pill to swallow, just to digest that mentally... When I got there I just bawled because he was just covered in blood."
Chelsea Bromley also received wounds to her arms in the attack.
Animal expert David Eyer said that news of a child getting attacked by such an animal was far from a surprising thing, and urged residents in Lakeview Park to be cautious when outside.
"Vancouver Island has more cougar attacks than anywhere else. I think for somebody living in a town like that, you need to be cautious because these generally younger cougars looking for territory do come into these areas. Everywhere else they go, the adults claim that territory."
Kevin Bromley also revealed how the community has stepped up to help out Zack following the attack, and is grateful for the outpouring of support, even receiving as much as $300 from the local pub to help the family out.
"That's the community. This is a very tight-knit community," Bromley said of his home town. In the meantime, Kevin has revealed that the family is thinking of getting a dog to ward off future predators, and hopefully keep the family safe moving forward.
