PHOTO: 5-year-old boy who was brutally attacked by a mountain lion before his mother took the animal from him.

A five-year-old boy was brutally attacked by a cougar in California before his mother had to take him away, leaving him with lacerations to his face and covered in cuts and bruises.

Jack Trexler, 5, of Half Moon, was attacked around 6:50 p.m. Tuesday near his home. His mother, Suzie Trexler, had to fight to get the animal away from her son, who was left with some “battle wounds.”

“He is the bravest and most adventurous boy I have ever known and I am not surprised if there was a boy who could fight a mountain lion and come out on top it would be Jack,” his aunt Amie Wagner wrote in GoFundMewho has raised over $26,000 in one day.

‘Jack has many lacerations, especially to his beautiful face, as well as a fracture near one eye. He is covered in cuts, bruises, and scratches, but his spirit remains intact.

His mother, Suzie Trexler, had to fight to get the animal away from her son, who was left with some “battle wounds.”

The family was told that the mountain lion, which did not bite Jack, only scratched him, barely missing a nerve near its eye by an inch.

Jack was walking ahead of his mother and grandparents on Tunitas Creek Road when a mountain lion pounced on him near his family’s Potrero Nuevo farm. The cougar was having a drink and the family suspects that Jack the San Francisco Chronicle informed.

Suzie charged at the animal after it started attacking her son. As she got closer, the animal released Jack. Suzie instantly took her son in her arms and “ran down the hill” to safety and took him to a local hospital.

Jack was later transferred to a trauma center, Wagner told the San Francisco Chronicle.

‘Jack has many lacerations, especially to his beautiful face, as well as a fracture near one eye. He is covered in cuts, bruises and scratches, but his spirit remains intact,’ his aunt said.

Jack was walking ahead of his mother and grandparents on Tunitas Creek Road when a mountain lion pounced on him near his family’s Potrero Nuevo farm. The cougar was drinking and the family suspects that Jack scared him

The boy is currently recovering from the attack at his home with his family and is expected to make a full recovery.

“Suzie is a really strong mom and she’s a hero,” Wagner told the Chronicle. “She’s obviously been traumatic, but I think she’s ready to focus on the positive, knowing how much worse she could have been.”

Department of Fish and Wildlife Capt. Patrick Foy agreed, saying: “The attack was very, very vicious in nature. Everything indicates that (the mother) saved her son’s life.

Authorities are still looking for the cougar and have collected DNA from Jack’s wounds to try to find him.

Authorities took samples of the animal’s DNA from Jack’s wounds to help locate the animal, but the mountain lion is still running amok.

It was the second such incident in California in less than a year and comes after a seven-year-old boy was hospitalized after being bitten by a lion near Los Angeles.

If the animal is captured, “it will not be returned to the wild,” Foy said, but did not elaborate on the exact plans for the young puma.

“People often ask us to just take (mountain lions) and release them in the ‘middle of nowhere,’ but the location where this attack occurred is described as the ‘middle of nowhere,'” Foy told the Chronicle. .

It was the second such incident in California in less than a year and comes after a seven-year-old boy was hospitalized after being bitten by a lion near Los Angeles.

Mountain lion sightings are common, but attacks are not. According to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, there have been about 20 confirmed attacks in California in more than a century.

‘If you are attacked, defend yourself. That’s probably the most important thing for people to understand. It’s not something you play dead on. You have to fight for your life,’ Foy said.