Metallica's music has played a role in learning your ABC's and improving international relations, and as a Vancouver woman found out last week, it's also very effective at scaring off one of Canada's most dangerous predators.
As KelownaNow reports, Vancouver Island resident Dee Gallant was out walking her dog, Murphy, along a logging road in the province's Cowichan Valley last Tuesday (July 23) when she said she felt "like something was watching" them.
After scanning the trail, Gallant spotted the cougar. "I looked over to the right and there it was, I couldn't make it out at first and thought 'oh that is a strange colour, that's not a tree,'" she said, adding, "It was crouched down, doing that kind of prowl, predator walk that they do — that was when I waved my arms and yelled 'hey, you stop!' and it did."
Gallant pulled out her phone to record the animal in front of her, while calling it a "bad kitty" and yelling for it to "get out of here." She recalled, "Initially I wasn't that scared, I remember thinking 'cool that's a cougar,' and then it was 'why is it still there?' before turning into 'oh my god it's coming toward me, I need to make it stop," she said.
A quick skim of her phone's music library led to Gallant picking "Don't Tread On Me" from the band's 1991 self-titled LP, joking that it "was the noisiest thing on my phone that would probably scare it, that was also the message I wanted to convey to the cougar."
Gallant proceeded to turn the phone all the way up to 11, and "As soon as the first notes blared out it ran into the bush." Gallant told the site that the cougar appeared to be "about three metres long from nose to tail."
She added, "I would love to contact [Metallica] someday and tell James Hetfield that he saved my life."
As KelownaNow reports, Vancouver Island resident Dee Gallant was out walking her dog, Murphy, along a logging road in the province's Cowichan Valley last Tuesday (July 23) when she said she felt "like something was watching" them.
After scanning the trail, Gallant spotted the cougar. "I looked over to the right and there it was, I couldn't make it out at first and thought 'oh that is a strange colour, that's not a tree,'" she said, adding, "It was crouched down, doing that kind of prowl, predator walk that they do — that was when I waved my arms and yelled 'hey, you stop!' and it did."
Gallant pulled out her phone to record the animal in front of her, while calling it a "bad kitty" and yelling for it to "get out of here." She recalled, "Initially I wasn't that scared, I remember thinking 'cool that's a cougar,' and then it was 'why is it still there?' before turning into 'oh my god it's coming toward me, I need to make it stop," she said.
A quick skim of her phone's music library led to Gallant picking "Don't Tread On Me" from the band's 1991 self-titled LP, joking that it "was the noisiest thing on my phone that would probably scare it, that was also the message I wanted to convey to the cougar."
Gallant proceeded to turn the phone all the way up to 11, and "As soon as the first notes blared out it ran into the bush." Gallant told the site that the cougar appeared to be "about three metres long from nose to tail."
She added, "I would love to contact [Metallica] someday and tell James Hetfield that he saved my life."
