Metallica saves woman from cougar attack

A Canadian woman owes her life Metallica's song "Don't Tread on Me" after it scared off a cougar.

Dee Gallant was on a walk with her dog on Vancouver Island when she ran into the wild cat the Telegraph UK reports.

"I thought I'd just take Murphy for a little hike like we usually do," she told Canada Global News.

"It was an evening so it started to get a bit dusky. We got a little ways up and I saw something watching me.

"I looked off to my right, and there he was, just standing there, staring at me.

"At first, I wasn't intimidated," she added. "I thought, 'Wow. This is really cool. Look at that cougar.'

"Then I thought, 'Wait a minute, that's a cougar.'"

So naturally, she decided to do what every person would do when faced with such a dangerous situation. She pulled out her phone and hit record.

After failing to intimidate the advancing cougar by waving her arms and shouting she suddenly found inspiration in 90s heavy metal... The chances of escaping a cougar, which can run at 50 mph, are pretty slim.

She chucked on the Metallica classic "Don't Tread on Me" at full blast.

"I thought it was perfect because it gives him the message that I want to send, and it's a really intimidating-sounding song.

"I immediately put it on and I held it up high in the air," she continued. "As soon as he heard the first note, he bolted. He was just gone."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission