A cougar that attacked a seven-year-old Port Alberni boy Wednesday night has been killed.
BC Conservation officers tracked the animal Thursday morning then shot and killed it.
“They believe this was the animal that attacked the boy,” RCMP Watch Commander Const. Tracey Corner said.
RCMP responded to a call of a cougar attack at the Taylor Flats section of Sproat Lake on Wednesday night.
There, police found a seven-year-old boy who was attacked and mauled by a cougar before his father managed to chase the animal away.
The boy suffered significant injuries to his head and neck and was transported by BC Ambulance to West Coast General Hospital where he remains.
The boy and his family had been camping in the area when the cougar attacked.
The incident is the second in a year on the West Coast involving a cougar attack.
In Oct. 2011 am 18-month-old boy was mauled by a cougar at Kennedy Lake.