Cougar kills tracking dog near Kamloops

Photo: Contributed - Province of BC

File photo of one of the canine units with the BC Environment ministry.

A specially-trained tracking dog working with conservation officers near Kamloops, has been killed by a cougar.

Conservation officer Kevin Van Damme says the incident happened Saturday while two service dogs were tracking a wounded cougar through a rural area outside the southern Interior city.

He says the cougar had a wire wrapped around its paw so was unable to climb a tree to escape the dogs.

Instead, it turned on its pursuers, killing one dog named Bust and biting the second dog, named Boomer, in the head.

The cougar was tracked and destroyed on Sunday and Van Damme says Boomer will recover, but the loss of Bust is a blow to the Conservation Service's newly-formed canine unit.

Both dogs had been brought to the Kamloops-area from the United States earlier this year to help launch the unit. (CHNL)