Fox News reports:
A Vancouver woman thanked the legendary heavy metal band Metallica for saving her life after she used their song Don’t Tread on Me to scare off a cougar on a logging road in Canada.
Dee Gallant, 45, was on an evening walk on July 23 with her 8-year-old husky retriever Murphy outside Duncan, British Columbia, when she said she felt like “something was watching” them, according to KelownaNow.
That something happened to be a threatening cougar, which stood about 50 feet in front of them. The pair were just over a mile into their hike.
Gallant says she didn’t even recognize the animal at first.
“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 color, that’s not a tree,’” she told KelownaNow.
Hoping to intimidate it, Gallant waved her arms and yelled, ‘Hey, you, stop!’ at the animal. The cougar froze, its eyes following her and Murphy.
“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 told the outlet.
Gallant used her phone to record the encounter and even yelled at the big cat, telling it to “Get out of here” and “bad kitty”
“It didn’t respond to that either. It just stayed locked on to me and seemed really interested, so that is when I decided to stop recording and try to do something else,” she said.
Out of options, she opened her phone’s music library and found a track she felt would sound the most threatening, Don’t Tread On Me by Metallica. She turned the music up to full volume and let the song play.
“I immediately put it on and I held it up high in the air,” Gallant said. “As soon as he heard the first note, he bolted. He was just gone.”
“I thought it was perfect because it gives him the message that I want to send, and it’s a really intimidating-sounding song,” she told the outlet.
She says the encounter only lasted five minutes. Afterward, the Canadian played the song for the rest of her hike with Murphy at her side until she made it to safety.
“I would love to contact them someday and tell James Hetfield [Mettalica’s lead singer] that he saved my life,” she laughed.
Hetfield did get in touch with Gallant, see here.
[Dana’s note: Thank you to both Rattlehead, and Tyger of Pan Tang, for passing this along].
24 Responses
I found this at Canada’s National Post website, which has pretty good reader commentary:
“Cougar must have been a Megadeth fan.”
“Last time I went to a Metallica concert, they were attracting cougars, not repelling them.”
Every commenter who sides with the cougar’s distaste for Metallica is getting accused of being an Anne Murray fan.
Myself, I’d like to know whatever happened to those Iraqi war prisoners who were tortured by “Enter Sandman”.
Did you make an Anne Murray joke? FYI, that nut Vinny Vincent is attempting to become Anne Murray through mindfulness and plastic surgery. He may succeed. Nah, Anne Murray is better than him. I saw Vinnie Vincent the other day in Manhattan, he tried to sell me a used toothbrush signed by him for $10.
MM,
Are you a fellow NY’er?
D 🙂
Pretty funny Tyger. While Anne Murray is considered a National treasure, Brian Adams is the real King of Canada and then of course, our beloved RUSH. \mm/ No, not Air Supply.
I LOVE Bryan Adams. Cuts Like A Knife and Reckless, are both amazing albums.
Agreed! Summer of 69 is another great one. But he went too far with that Robin hood crap. Everything I do..man that was terrible.
I agree, I am not one for wimpy songs. I think I can count the number of “metal” ballads I like on one hand.
Air Supply is from Australia.
My top 5 Canadian artists:
5. BTO
4. Loverboy
3. Bryan Adams
2. Triumph
1. Rush
What? No Celine Dion? 😉
Hell no! Ugh!!! I never liked that plastic robot!
Shania Twain is Canadian and man I feel like a woman!
The best thing from Canada – John Freaking Candy !
Oops! I should’ve put Triumph and not Air Supply. \mm/
John Candy and the McKenzie brothers and Second City was some great stuff for it’s time. Miss all them Hoseheads.
Another great Canuck is Jin Carey if we’re speaking Comedy.
Carrey is an absolute nut bag, and I don’t mean that in a good way, either.
Yep, he’s a pretty depressed and dark guy. But he talks from his butt and that’s funny in my book…Cheers
I agree, he definitely talks out if his butt. 😉
The best anything ever out of Canada is Pam Anderson. No, I don’t live in Manhattan, I just use that example because it is relatable. I saw Vinny Vincent in Middletown dressed as Elvira, Mistress of the dark doesn’t really work.
Pam is an attractive Canadian, but poutine is better, eh! \mm/