Rescue
Driver slams his brakes & goes into attack mode when he sees a bobcat attacking an owner & dog
Steve was on his way to buy a newspaper when he spotted a wild bobcat attacking a man and his German Shepherd on the side of the road.
Krista Olivier
01.16.21

In Anthem, Arizona Steve Verschoor was on his way to buy a newspaper on Sunday morning when he saw a bobcat attacking a pedestrian man’s German shepherd. He could see that the dogs’ owner was struggling to break up the two fighting animals. He knew he had to help so without turning his car off, he jumped out and ran to the rescue of the dog, leaving his car door wide open. Verschoor said that,

”I had flip flops on so I couldn’t kick the cat so I just started punching it and punching it to try and get it to ‘disenlodge.’”

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

After a bit of a struggle, eventually, the bobcat released its grip on the dog and latched onto Verschoor’s hand instead. He started swinging his hand around to try and fling the vicious bobcat off but it was determined to not let go. In the video that was taken you can see Verschoor spinning around and hear his shouts of pain as the bobcat hung onto his hand with its teeth. Verschoor said,

”Somehow in that ‘fruckus’ there he clenched onto my hand. Chomped me pretty good enough to break my thumb.”

After the altercation, Verschoor ended up with a fractured thumb and deep cuts on one hand and additional cuts on his other arm. In the video you can see his blood pooling up in his hand. He joked that,

“I can’t go golfing or bowling for awhile.”

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

Once the bobcat finally released Verschoor, he ran into a storm drain where he started meowing and howling. Then the Maricopa County Sheriff showed up and put the bobcat down. The next day the cat was tested and discovered to have rabies which means that Verschoor needs to go to rabies treatment and get a shoot every four days. Verschoor said,

”I’m sorry he got put down. With wild animals, especially once they get human blood, you got to take action. Especially if there are little kids around.”

Flickr - San Bernardino Nat'l Forest
Source:
Flickr - San Bernardino Nat'l Forest

Jason Garrido happened upon the scene and started recording the incident where you can see Verschoor trying to fling the cat off of his hand. Garrido even jumped into Verschoor’s car to stop it from driving away because in his haste, Verschoor had left it in gear. It’s a good thing Garrido was there to stop the car from rolling away because that could have caused another dangerous incident. Verschoor explained that,

“Being an animal lover, I just went into attack mode with the bobcat to try and get him off the dog.”

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

All of this happened outside of the entrance of Anthem County Club where the leashed dog and his owner had been out for a walk. It was lucky that Verschoor had been driving by because who knows what would have happened if he had not come to the rescue? Verschoor is definitely that dogs hero! Luckily Verschoor only sustained minor injuries and nothing major had happened. He laughed that,

“Attacking a wild animal with your bare hands probably isn’t a good idea.”

YouTube - Inside Edition
Source:
YouTube - Inside Edition

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