Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on October 21, 1970.
Cougar Mauls Boy,8
Eight-year-old John Eichelberg of 417 Weston was in fair condition today at Porter Memorial Hospital where he underwent surgery Tuesday after being mauled by a cougar owned by Dr. Robert Stoltz, 415 Madison, police said.
The younger suffered puncture wounds on the face and a severed ear.
John was injured on the Stoltz property when he and two brothers, Richard 11, and Matt, and a sister, Lisa, children of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Eichelberg, went to see the “big cat” at the Stoltz home, police said.
Mrs. Eichelberg told police her children came home from school Tuesday and requested permission to go look at the animal.
Not knowing what kind of cat it was, she gave permission, the mother told police. A short while later, her children came running home and told her the cat had John down and was biting him, she said.
When she reached the Stoltz residence her son, Richard, had pulled John from the animal.
Richard told police that when he and the others went to the Stoltz residence, they knocked on the door and no one answered.
The four children when to the rear unfenced yard of the residence. When they approached the cougar, it grabbed John with both paws, knocking him to the ground, police said.
Matt and Lisa kicked and pulled at the cat attempting to get it off the boy, Richard said.
Richard said he was able to grab John’s leg and pull him from the cat’s reach.
The cougar, a gift from a Valparaiso University student to Dr. Stoltz, was secured by a 10-foot chain attached to the rear of a converted school bus, Chief Lee E. Miller said.
The bus which is used as a camper is used as shelter for the animal, which the doctor has had for about two weeks, Chief Miller said. The young cougar had been declawed.
Dr. Stoltz was in the process of building a cage for the animal and was going to keep it at his farm in Porter County, Chief Miller said.
