Friday, July 9, 2010 Child centre wants our local hospital units kept open.
Page 6
ary Annivers 1985-2010
• YOUR SOURCE FOR LOCAL SPORTS, NEWS, WEATHER AND ENTERTAINMENT! • mrtimes.com • 604-463-2281 • 40 PAGES
Webster’s cougar gets euthanized
RECREATION ❚ Wild Thing
Elisha Barry rode one of the zip lines Tuesday at WildPlay Maple Ridge. The park, featuring a series of climbing and balancing elements with varying degrees of difficulty, opens July 15 and the finishing touches are still being applied to the site. Visit www. wildplay.com/mapleridge/index.php. See the story on Page 12. Troy Landreville/TIMES
Conservation officers have put down a cougar who is believed to have killed two goats and was seen roaming around Webster’s Corners Elementary School. Tracking dogs located the cougar around 10 a.m. on Thursday in the vicinity of the school on 256 Street and Dewdney Trunk Road. Conservation officers felt it was necessary to kill the cougar due to its proximity to homes and the school. “The conservation officers feel there was only one cougar in the area, but no one can be 100-per-cent certain about that. Therefore we want to caution people in the area to be on the lookout for any cougars, and take proper precautions, and call us or (conservation officers) if they see one,” said Ridge Meadows RCMP Inspector Derren Lench. Cindy Hoflin called authorities about the cougar after she found her two Pygmy goats, Happy Goatmore and Sparky, dead in their pen with bitemarks on their neck at around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. She turned around and started walking towards her barn, expecting to confront a dog. “I got about eight feet from the barn and (the cougar) popped its head out,” she said. Hoflin lives next to a daycare and her pen shares a fence with the daycare. Hoflin was concerned the cougar could have hurt one of the children who feed her goats from the other side of the playground fence. Conservation officers spent Tuesday and Wednesday trying to catch the elusive cat. “We saw the cat. It ran by the houndsman and into the creek,” said conservation officer Terry Myroniuk. They couldn’t track it from the water. Myroniuk said cougars are difficult to successfully relocate and don’t adapt well to captivity. Myroniuk said he hasn’t had to kill a cougar in six years as a conservation officer. “I hate having to be the executioner,” he said. — With files from Canwest News
Crime
Family pleads for tips about assault by Amy Steele asteele@mrtimes.com
T
he family of a 44-year-old man who has been left paralyzed on one side and unable to speak after he was assaulted at the Wolf Bar in Maple Ridge on June 13 is pleading with the public to come forward with any information about the assault. The assault on Del Parent, father of two, occurred around 2 a.m. at the bar, which is in the 22300 block of Lougheed Highway. Parent was treated by paramedics at the scene. He got home on his own that morning. However, Del’s brother Andre Parent, said he got a call from his brother’s co-worker on the Tuesday after he was assaulted because
Del hadn’t shown up for work for two days. “I went to his house and found him collapsed on the floor,” said Andre. He was taken to Ridge Meadows Hospital by ambulance and a CT scan revealed serious bleeding in his brain. He required immediate surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital to relieve the pressure. “He’s suffered severe mental and physical damage as a result of the injuries,” said Andre. “He will be handicapped for the rest of his life.” Andre said it’s unlikely his brother will work again and could lose his house. He added that the last fight his brother was involved in was in high school and said “he’s not a man who would harm anyone ever.” See ASSAULT, Page 5
Daughter Kayla fights back tears as Del Parent’s brother Andre and son Kyle listen Thursday. Amy Steele/TIMES
Don’t miss important information from the City of Pitt Meadows on Page 7
WE’RE CLOSER THAN
Online, all the time...
YOU THINK! Right here at home!
www.mrtimes.com
pages 20 & 21