访谈录 2009-07-19&07-22 硬汉电锯勇斗美洲狮

A man who used a chainsaw to fight off an attacking mountain lion. Dustin Britton was camping in Wyoming with his wife and two toddlers. The ex-marine 1 alone, cutting firewood about 100 feet from his campsite when he saw the beast staring at him through the brush. And then it charged. Dustin joins us this morning from Thermopolis, Wyoming to tell us what happens next. Good morning!

Good morning!

So how big are we talking? 100 pounds? 200 pounds?

Of course, it seemed really big to me. It seemed plenty big to me. I guess I was told it weighed 100 pounds.

OK. And you are cutting wood, the noise of the saw, obviously didn’t scare it off. What happened next?

Er, I just, within seconds, I see this lion, over, 20 feet from me, just standing 2 there, and looking at me. I can see about just tad there in the grass. Of course it scared the pants off me and I ran backwards 3, and doubled the distance between me and it. I was kind of in a clearing and I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t afraid of me or the saw especially. And I just kept revving 4 that chainsaw and watching it. For probably three seconds it just watched me. And then it slowly, it came out of the brush and out into the open and then it just charged right at me and lunged at me. I guess it leapt right up, it came right up to eye level. And right as it did, I had that saw running and I just beared down on it. Ur, my goal was to fend 5 it off. That was the only weapon I had. So, you know, there wasn’t a whole lot of choice there. It was me or that lion.

So the thing is literally 6 in the air. It’s going for you. What happened next? Did it knock you off balance?

It pushed me back a few steps. You know, I was kind of in a stance where I was ready for an impact or some sort. You know, real, just kind of muscle memory thing from my training in the Marine. It seemed like, later I thought that’s exactly what my body did. And yet, as it came up, I brought the saw up and so it batted my arms and the saw three or four times. And then I hit it as hard as I could with that saw at full throttle 7. I tried to hit it in the neck of course. It, just downed and went. And it left. It didn’t leave in a big hurry. But it left. And I was pretty scared.

Did you get bit? You have a wound at all? It’s almost healed now. I had a tiny little puncture 8 on my forearm. That’s all I got.

Amazing thing to show for it or something like that. I have to ask you, two toddlers were 100 feet away, what was going through your mind while this was happening in terms of them.

Of course I wanted to get to them. They were my number one priority 9. Once I knew I was safe I was to get back there and make sure they weren’t in danger as well. I went back to the camp and got them inside the camper, and got the dog inside of the car. We just tried to stay inside the camper as much as possible for the rest of the evening.

Well, it’s a happy ending to an amazing story. Congratulations! And enjoy the rest of your vacation, Dustin. Thanks for getting up and sharing it with us.

I will. Sure.

All right, they think that maybe the lion was starving. This is so rare, this occurrence 10.