9-Year-Old Girl Attacked by Cougar and Survived

Gary Bai
By Gary Bai
May 31, 2022US News
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9-Year-Old Girl Attacked by Cougar and Survived
A recent picture of 9-year-old Lily Kryzhanivskyy, who was attacked by a cougar when playing outside around Fruitland, Wash., on May 28, 2022. (Alex Mantsevich via GoFundMe)

A 9-year-old girl from the state of Washington is currently hospitalized after surviving a cougar attack.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), 9-year-old Lily Kryzhanivskyy was playing with other children in the Fruitland area on May 28 when a cougar suddenly attacked her. She was immediately transported to the ICU of a nearby hospital after the attack to receive treatment.

“The kids ran off to tell adults, some other adults ran up and threw rocks at it, which ran off the cougar,“ Staci Lehman, a spokesperson from the WDFW, told NTD, adding that the 9-year-old was released from the ICU on May 30 and remains in stable condition.

According to Lehman, the incident was very “unusual” as cougars are “elusive” animals.

“Nine times out of 10, when a human encounters a cougar or any kind of wildlife, it’s going to turn the other way and disappear. It doesn’t want to be in close contact with us any more than we want to be in contact with it,” Lehman said.

She added that though authorities are still investigating the incident, activities such as running or playing close to the cougar may have prompted the attack.

“Things like running are a trigger to cougars and other wildlife. It’s an instinct. So they may not have known it was there, ran past the animal, and it jumped out,” the spokesperson said.

“We are praying to God that she recovers fast [and] everything goes well during this hard time that they are going through,” reads a GoFundMe page started by Lily’s family, “I am asking for your prayers and support of her mom Yelena, due to all medical expenses and time off work, please help raise funds so we all can support and help Yelena take care of her daughter Lily.”

A national forest in Washington state recently closed a trail due to reported human-cougar interactions, according to a notice published on the United States Forest Service website. The cougars’ responses were reported to be “minimal” after hikers scared them off.

The WDFW spokesperson provided several tips for what to do in a cougar encounter.

“Generally, if you were to run into a cougar, maybe you’re hiking or camping, your best bet is to you want to make eye contact with that animal and talk to it while you back away,” Lehman said. “Don’t run, don’t turn, don’t take your eyes off of it. Just back off the way you came and give it space to leave.”

“If it continues to approach you, you want to kind of escalate your voice and your actions. So make yourself look as big as possible. Put your arms over your head. If there’s a rock or a stump, you could step up on to do that. Yell at it. Just be very assertive with it,” she said.

“If it does continue towards you, [at] that point, you want to throw something at it to try to run it off, like the people did in [Lily’s] case where they threw rocks. If you have rocks or maybe you have a backpack with a water bottle, something like that, throw it at the animal, let it know you’re serious, and generally, it’ll run off,” Lehman added.

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