Attack of the Mountain Lion

Audio from Inside Edition about a woman who was attacked by a Mountain Lion (see articles below).

A part of the United Nations' Agenda 21, is the wildlands project. We have a new section going up on the Sweet Liberty site to address this topic soon.

It is all part of the globalists' efforts to relocate Americans from the rural land areas to the large cities, where you can be zoned, ordinanced, and regulated to death. They call it "rural cleansing", "smart growth", and curtailing "urban sprawl". We call it totalitarian control.

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Woman narrowly escapes death in attack by mountain lion

By Greg Hardesty
Orange County Register
May 3, 2004

SANTA ANA, Calif. — "Jesus, help me."

That was Anne Hjelle's first thought when the 112-pound mountain lion locked its jaws around her head.

When the cougar tore away at the flesh on her fair face and neck, ripping her left ear from her skull and folding the left side of her cheek over her broken nose, she had another thought:

"I want to die."

Hjelle, savagely mauled while mountain biking in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in south Orange County, Calif., nearly four months ago, then thought of her husband of three years, James.

"I knew that for him to lose me would be devastating," Hjelle, 31, told TV's "Inside Edition," which is airing her first interview since the Jan. 8 mauling.

The same mountain lion that attacked Hjelle hours earlier had killed cyclist Mark Reynolds, 35, of Foothill Ranch, Calif.

On Friday, "Inside Edition" released excerpts. Hjelle has declined to talk to other media outlets until the program airs.

Hjelle was out on a late-afternoon ride with the Trail Angels, a group of Christian female mountain bikers, when her life changed.

Friend and riding partner Debi Nicholls was following Hjelle as they rode down Cactus Ridge Run in the northeast section of the park.

"All of a sudden I saw a flash of movement over my right shoulder," Hjelle said. "The next thing I knew, I was off of my bike. I just remember the impact of him. He hit me so hard and I knew right away what it was."

Although the women did not know it at the time, the remains of Reynolds lay nearby.

He had been dead for about four hours, his internal organs consumed - the first mountain-lion fatality in Orange County history, and only the sixth in the state. Experts believe the mountain lion, later shot dead by Orange County Sheriff's deputies, may have been protecting its kill when it pounced on Hjelle.

"The thing I remember very clearly is his power," said Hjelle, a gym trainer and a former U.S. Marine. "It was unreal. It felt like 10 guys attacking me at once. There's absolutely no way I was any match for this animal.

"He actually grabbed onto my shoulders. ... He was going for my neck, and his goal, as it would be with any type of prey, was to break my neck and paralyze me."

A horrified Nicholls got off her bike.

She saw the cougar dragging Hjelle by the neck off the trail and into the brush. She grabbed her friend by the legs.

"I could actually see Debi's face and I could see her screaming," Hjelle said. "I mean, it was blood-curdling screams."

Just inches from being attacked herself, Nicholls and the lion engaged in a desperate tug of war with Hjelle's body.

Nichols had Hjelle by the legs, as the lion had her head and face in his jaws. As the women were dragged deeper into the brush, Hjelle began to think that the battle was almost over.

"Once he started clamping down, I remember thinking ... this is it. I'm going to die."

Amazingly, Hjelle said: "I didn't feel pain at the time. ... I felt just the strength of (the cougar)."

Then she passed out.

Two other bikers, Nils Magnuson and Mike Castellano, heard the women's screams and helped scare off the cougar by throwing rocks and other objects at it.

The cougar finally released its death grip.

Hjelle soon regained consciousness. The men carried her back up to the trail and called 911.

"Honestly, once the lion took off I thought, `I'm in the clear now. I'm good,'" Hjelle said. "Never once did I think I might bleed to death, I might still die. It never occurred to me."

Twenty minutes later, help arrived and Hjelle was airlifted to the hospital.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Nolan of Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, Calif., has already performed reconstructive surgery on Hjelle's face.

There will be three to five surgeries over the next five years to correct her uneven smile and droopy left eye, he said.

"I think we're going to get very close to how she used to look, but it's all predicated on how much nerve function she regains," Nolan told the Register. "Age is on her side. Nerves in someone her age can regrow.

"She has a remarkable attitude. She's an impressive human being."

Hjelle, a member of Life Church in Mission Viejo, said she isn't sure why her life was spared.

"I never have said, `Why me?'" she said.

"(And) I'm not concerned about the scars. I'm just thankful to be alive. I just know God will get me through it, and he's never going to give me more than I can handle.

"And wow, if he thought I could handle this, it's big."


Critters come close for food, water

By Lisa M. Sodders
Los Angeles Daily News
May 07, 2004

A mountain lion lurks in Griffith Park. Sharks feed 100 yards off the coast of Pacific Palisades. A 200-hundred-pound California black bear takes a dip in a Jacuzzi on a casual romp through an Agoura Hills neighborhood.

Officials warn it's the season for critter sightings.

"People need to be aware of what's before them, around them and behind them," said Alexia Retallack, spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game. "When you're alert and paying attention, it's less likely for an incident to occur."

The bear population in local mountains is growing slightly and coming out of hibernation. Coyotes in search of food for their pups are crossing busy streets in the San Fernando Valley and the hot dry weather is sending many animals into urban areas for water.

Public awareness and sightings are up, officials said, due, in part, to a fatal mountain lion attack in Orange County in January. In that incident, a 35-year-old Anaheim man was mauled by a cougar while mountain biking in a wilderness park. On the same day, a 30-year-old woman was severely injured by the same cougar, which was beaten back by the woman's friend and passing bicyclists.

Still, Fish and Game's Steve Martarano noted that there have been only 14 mountain lion attacks since 1890, six of them fatal.

Bear sightings in semirural areas around the San Fernando Valley area, like Tuesday's visit to an Agoura Hills neighborhood by a black bear from the Santa Monica Mountains, are also rare.

Wildlife officials tranquilized that bear and returned it to the mountains. Martarano said homeowners must avoid feeding bears because once they develop a taste for human food, they will return to get more, and can grow more aggressive in their pursuit of food, which often forces officials to kill them.

"Bears think with their stomachs, and they'll tear off a car door if they think there's food inside," Martarano said.

Because of the warmer temperatures, officials said Californians should also be on the lookout for rattlesnakes, the state's only native venomous snake.

Retallack said people should stick to well-used trails when they hike and avoid tall grass and weeds. If they are bitten, they should seek medical attention immediately.

"A lot of rattlesnakes can swim, so if you see a piece of wood drifting by, don't just grab it, because it may not be wood," Retallack said.

Shark sightings off the coast of Pacific Palisades early in the week cleared many swimmers from the surf, but Capt. Garth Canning, with the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Lifeguard Division, said there's nothing unusual about the sightings.

"It's the weather -- we've had no wind," he said. "When there's wind on the water, the surface of the ocean is choppy, and it's much harder to see on the bottom. When you're in a helicopter and it's dead calm and the water's like glass, eventually, you're going to spot some wildlife."

"We've never had a shark attack in Santa Monica Bay," Canning said, adding that south of Point Conception, near Lompoc, the sharks tend to be juveniles who are more interested in snacking on fish than sea lions.

"Every wild animal represents a risk if molested," Canning said. "If you encounter any wild animal, give it a lot of space, whether it's a shark, a sea lion, a stingray or a jellyfish."