North Carolina Teacher Dies After Animal Attack

A North Carolina teacher has died from injuries she suffered during an animal attack, her school announced on Feb. 18.

Brenda Hamilton, 77, was attacked at around 5:45 a.m. on Feb. 15, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Hamilton was listed as a high school English and language, spelling, and literature teacher on the Pungo Christian Academy’s website. It said that she began working at the school in 1968 after attending East Carolina University.

According to a press release from the sheriff, biologists with the state’s Wildlife Resources Commission performed some preliminary DNA tests to try to discern what type of animal attacked Hamilton.

Biologists said the tests eliminated the possibility that any wild animals native to the area were involved in the attack. On Sunday, deputies said that they’re investigating whether any domestic dogs in the area could have attacked the elderly woman.

“Beaufort County Sheriff’s Investigators are continuing to investigate to determine which, if any domestic K9s in the area may have attacked Hamilton,” it said.

Hamilton was rushed to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville after being attacked but died on Monday, her family said.

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that I share our precious Mrs. Hamilton has gained her wings. She has always been our Pungo angel, but now she is rejoicing with her maker in heaven. Anyone who knew her has no doubt that when she enter[s] the gates of heaven, she was welcome with these words …’Well done my good and faithful servant … well done,'” a school official wrote on Facebook.

“The family is very appreciative of the prayers and support offered to them during this difficult time. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. Also, please keep the Raider family in your prayers as Mrs. Hamilton was the matriarch of PCA. She will be missed.”

In a post on Sunday, the school said Hamilton’s injuries were “devastating” and that her family would have to “make difficult decisions in the coming days.” The school also said that no visitors would be able to see Hamilton because of her condition.

Trail Runner Tells How He Wrestled Mountain Lion

WARNING: Some readers may find the images below disturbing.

With claw wounds still healing on his face, the jogger who wrestled a mountain lion to the death has spoken out for the first time about the encounter. The attack happened on a Colorado trail that left him needing 28 stitches.

When the Colorado Parks and Wildlife first announced that an unnamed jogger had fought off a juvenile mountain lion on Feb. 4, the dramatic story had one gaping hole—how had he managed to kill the lion with his bare hands?

On Feb. 14, the mysterious jogger was revealed as Travis Kauffman, 31, who described how he had rolled with the 40-pound cougar for 10 minutes in the pine needles and dirt after it launched an attack at his face, clamped its jaws onto his wrist and refused to let go.

“It was going up toward my face so I threw up my hands to kind of block my face, at which point it grabbed onto my hand and wrist and from there it started to claw at my face and neck. And that’s when kind of my fear response turned into more of a fight response,” Kauffman said.

Kaufmann tried to throw it off, but the force threw both of them off balance, off the trail, with the mountain lion still gripping his wrist in its teeth. “From there it was just like a wrestling match,” Kauffman said.

After hitting the animal over the head with a rock failed, he finally suffocated the thrashing animal to death by pinning its throat with his foot.

Bleeding from wounds to his legs, face, and arm, Kauffmann got back to the trail, where he met some other joggers who took him to a hospital. He needed 17 stitches to one wound on his cheek and another 6 to a wound in his nose.

Epoch Times reporter Simon Veazey contributed to this report.