NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Runner recalls fight with mountain lion
Colorado man says
he felt a wave of fear
before suffocating cat
By P. SOLOMON BANDA
Associated Press
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Fear
washed over Travis Kauffman as he
wrestled with a thrashing mountain
lion that attacked him on a Colo-
rado mountain trail, but then his
fighting instinct took over as he
found its neck with his foot and suf-
focated the young cat.
The 31-year-old trail runner
recalled Thursday his encounter
with the silent cat that lunged at
him from behind, clamped its jaws
down on his wrist and clawed at his
neck, face and body. Striking the
mountain lion on the head with a
rock didn’t get it to release its grip.
Neither did his attempts to stab the
animal in the neck with twigs.
“There was a point where I was
concerned that I wasn’t going to
make it out,” Kauffman told report-
ers. “I had that wave of fear roll
over me and thought I could end up
there.”
It was the first time Kauffman
publicly recounted the Feb. 4 ordeal
that left him with 28 stitches and a
reputation for toughness and brav-
ery that overshadows his wiry
frame.
“I will never be able to live up
to the reputation,” said Kauffman,
who is 5-foot-10 and weighs about
155 pounds. “The story is bigger
than my puny form.”
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Travis Kauffman responds to questions during a news conference Thursday
in Fort Collins, Colo., about his encounter with a mountain lion while run-
ning a trail just west of Fort Collins last week. Kaufman’s girlfriend, Annie
Bierbower, looks on.
Kauffman said he was run-
ning on a trail in the mountains
west of Fort Collins when he heard
pine needles rustle behind him. He
turned to see the mountain lion
about 10 feet away.
“One of my worst fears was con-
firmed,” he said.
The cat lunged, and Kauffman
raised his hands and screamed.
The animal locked its teeth onto his
wrist and they tumbled off the side
of the trail.
Kauffman grabbed a rock with
his free hand and beat the cat on
the back of the head. He also tried
stabbing it with twigs, but nothing
worked.
“It really clicked after I hit it
in the head with a rock and it still
didn’t release my wrist that at
that point, more drastic measures
were necessary,” he said. “I was
able to kind of shift my weight
and get a foot on its neck” until it
succumbed.
Bleeding from his face and
wrist, he jogged back down the
trail, where he met other runners
who got him to a hospital.
“I was just thankful that he had
his eyes and his fingers and all his
parts, and it didn’t look as bad as
I maybe would have thought that it
could,” said Kauffman’s girlfriend,
Annie Bierbower.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife
officers retrieved the dead cat.
They said their investigation and
a necropsy confirmed Kauffman’s
account.
“Travis is a pretty amazing
young man,” said Ty Petersburg, a
wildlife manager for the agency.
Kauffman became the 22nd per-
son attacked by a mountain lion
in Colorado since 1990, Parks and
Wildlife said. Three of the attacks
were fatal.
A necropsy report said the cat
that attacked Kauffman was male,
4 or 5 months old and weighed 35
to 40 pounds. The cat had limited
fat, indicating it was hungry but not
starving.
It showed no sign of rabies or
other diseases, the report said, but
many of its organs had been scav-
enged by other animals before the
body was recovered.
Adult male mountain lions aver-
age about 150 pounds, Parks and
Wildlife said.
Petersburg said officers set up
cameras and traps in the area for
several days after the attack. They
saw no large mountain lions but
captured two young ones in good
health. He said both are in a reha-
bilitation center, and the agency
hopes to release them back into the
wild.
Kauffman, who is an environ-
mental consultant, described him-
self as an avid runner, cyclist and
skier who has a pet cat at home. He
said he doesn’t plan to retreat from
the outdoors.
“I will go run those trails again,”
he said, but added, “I will go with a
buddy there.”
BRIEFLY
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
A bit of snow this
afternoon
Cloudy, a bit of
snow; very cold
A little morning
snow; very cold
Mostly cloudy and
cold
Cold with snow;
ice at night
36° 30°
33° 22°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
30° 14°
39° 28°
36° 29°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
38° 32°
36° 25°
34° 15°
42° 29°
38° 32°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
45/36
27/25
34/23
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
36/28
Lewiston
44/36
35/28
Astoria
46/39
Pullman
Yakima 29/22
44/31
31/29
Portland
Hermiston
44/36
The Dalles 38/32
Salem
Corvallis
44/37
La Grande
Yesterday
Normals
Records
33/27
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
45/36
38/26
35/29
Ontario
38/29
Caldwell
Burns
36°
20°
49°
29°
71° (1930) 5° (1929)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
45/37
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
44/34
Trace
1.40"
0.62"
2.93"
1.61"
1.90"
WINDS (in mph)
38/28
32/23
Trace
1.54"
0.74"
3.61"
2.17"
2.12"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 31/23
45/37
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
36/30
40/34
32°
24°
47°
30°
76° (1902) 6° (2006)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
44/32
Aberdeen
25/19
27/19
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
44/36
Today
Wed.
WSW 6-12
WSW 7-14
NNW 4-8
WNW 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
34/23
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:52 a.m.
5:27 p.m.
5:48 p.m.
7:11 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Feb 19
Feb 26
Mar 6
Mar 14
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in Immokalee, Fla. Low -32° in Daniel, Wyo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
As his mother Wenyi Zhang holds him, 1-year-old Abel
Zhang looks at the book being given him by Dr. Lauren
Lawler, right, as his grandmother Ding Hong helps with
his clothes moments after the child received the last
of three inoculations, including a vaccine for measles,
mumps, and rubella (MMR), at the International Commu-
nity Health Services Feb. 13 in Seattle.
Measles case count grows to 61
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Clark County Public
Health has identified two new measles cases and two new
exposure locations in its ongoing outbreak investigation.
Public Health spokeswoman Marissa Armstrong
released a statement Sunday saying the agency has iden-
tified 61 confirmed cases of the highly contagious virus.
Of the 61 cases confirmed in Clark County, 54 were
not immunized against measles. Immunization status
couldn’t be verified for five cases, and two cases involved
a child who had received only a single dose of the MMR
vaccine.
The majority of confirmed Clark County cases — 44
— involve children between the ages of 1 and 10.
The two new locations where people may have been
exposed to measles are two schools — one elementary
and one middle — in Vancouver.
Mother, son rescued from Silver Falls
SUBLIMITY (AP) — A mother and her 3-year-old
son walked out of Silver Falls State Park after getting
lost on a hike and spending the night in sub-freezing
temperatures.
KGW-TV reports Monday that Josie Chysm, 24, of
Salem, and her son set out on a hike around noon Sunday
with Chysm’s boyfriend, Joshua Dixsen, 25.
But the trio became lost and Dixsen hiked out for help
while Chysm and the boy waited under a tree along the
Rim Trail.
Dixsen was able to make a cellphone call around
3 a.m. and the mother and son were rescued shortly after
8 a.m. They were cold and wet but otherwise unharmed.
The group didn’t have proper clothing or gear for win-
ter weather.
Temperatures dropped into the 20s overnight.
Authorities also rescued another hiker in the Colum-
bia River Gorge late Sunday.
Proposal
would
lower
voting age
in Oregon
to 16
If legislators OK
the measure, it
would go to voters
for final approval
By LAUREN DAKE
Oregon Public Broadcasting
There is an effort under-
way in Salem to change
Oregon’s legal voting age
from 18 to 16 years old.
Portland-based
Dem-
ocratic state Sen. Shemia
Fagan introduced a mea-
sure Monday to make Ore-
gon the first state in the
nation to do so.
“It’s time to lower the
voting age in Oregon and
to give our young people a
chance to participate in the
ballot, about their decisions
that affect their homes,
their clean air, their future,
their schools and as we’ve
seen, their very lives,”
Fagan said.
The
state
senator
pointed to the young activ-
ists who became engaged
after the Parkland shooting
in Florida, which left 17
people dead. They proved
young people are active
and should have a right to
vote, Fagan said.
Several teenagers spoke
in favor of the measure
alongside Fagan on Mon-
day at the Capitol.
“Why can I drive like
an adult, pay taxes like an
adult, have an abortion like
an adult, be charged and
sentenced like an adult, but
I can’t vote like an adult?”
asked Christine Bynum,
a student at La Salle High
School.
Students spoke of a
desire to curb gun vio-
lence and to protect the
environment.
“We’re experts of our
own experiences,” said
Connor Gabor.
People are being sex-
ually assaulted in their
schools, Gabor said. Peo-
ple are being shot. Yet, they
can’t vote for school board
members or lawmakers, he
said.
“When we have a lock-
down and fear for our
lives, we know what that
feels like. We want to take
agency over our own lives,”
Gabor said.
Fagan is proposing a
change to the Oregon Con-
stitution. If lawmakers
approve the measure, it
would then be sent to the
voters.
Fagan said she hopes it’s
on the ballot in the 2020
election.
“Oregon is a state of
innovation when it comes
to election reform, and it
makes sense for us to con-
sider the bold proposal of
lowering the voting age this
session,” said Samantha
Gladu, executive director
of the Bus Project, which is
behind the measure.
“In Oregon, we consis-
tently push the boundary
of what is possible and look
for creative ways to include
as many voices as possible
in our democracy,” Gladu
added. “We want all Ore-
gonians to be heard.”
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211
Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed major holidays
EastOregonian.com
To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255
or go online to EastOregonian.com
and click on ‘Subscribe’
East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday,
Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers
Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR.
Postmaster: send address changes to
East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
Subscriber services:
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
EZPay
52 weeks
26 weeks
13 weeks
Local home delivery Savings (cover price)
$14.50
41 percent
$173.67
41 percent
$91.86
38 percent
$47.77
36 percent
*EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit
or debit card/check charge
Single copy price:
$1.50 Tuesday through Saturday
Circulation Manager:
Bonny Tuller, 541-966-0828
ADVERTISING
Regional Publisher and Revenue Director:
• Christopher Rush
541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com
Advertising Services:
• Angela Treadwell
541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
• Grace Bubar
541-276-2214 • gbubar@eastoregonian.com
Multimedia Consultants:
• Kimberly Macias
541-278-2683 • kmacias@eastoregonian.com
• Jeanne Jewett
541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com
• Dayle Stinson
541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com
• Audra Workman
541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com
Classified & Legal Advertising
1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678
classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com
NEWS
• To submit news tips and press releases:
call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com
• To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News:
email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini
at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818.
• To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries:
email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Manager:
541-966-0822
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com