A furry-ious new low for hockey violence

Hockey's season of unkind behaviour continues on, spreading from the players on the ice, to the health and welfare of those noble warriors that don perhaps the most dangerous of uniforms...

No not the officials, but those that take up the torch of the hockey mascot...

A case in point, the nasty assault on Marty the Marmot, the popular, no make that BELOVED, representative of the Victoria Royals Junior hockey club, who was attacked by a fan during an in between periods event Saturday night in the British Columbia capital.

As part of the entertainment, Marty was overseeing a game of musical chairs, when one of the participants took exception to the role of the Costumed Marmot in the proceedings, lifting and then dropping the mascot to the ice, in some kind of WWE or UFC manoeuvre.
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Reaction to the assault on Marty has been fairly quick on social media and for the most part the contributions have been in a Hang Em' High kind of vein.

With many calling on the Victoria Police to make quick work of their investigation and provide for an arrest pronto, sending it all to the courts where we imagine they'll be lining up for jury duty.

In fact, we have some exclusive video of the jury selection process currently underway...
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As for Marty, the reigning Mascot of the year, the Marmot is resting comfortably, recuperating from the trauma of the night. Marty has also been busy responding to well wishes through his twitter feed, advising all that he'll be ready to go Wednesday night when Edmonton comes to town.

Making him one tough Marmot...

There's been no comment thus far from the Mascot's union, but we imagine that they will be calling on all league's to provide for better protection for team mascots.

Or at the least to make sure that there is an enforcer on the ice at all times when the costumed stars are on their shift.

Either that, or Marty's gonna go get himself some foil...

The saga of the attack of Marty the Marmot has many chapters, a few of them can be found below:

Victoria Times-Colonist-- Charges 'likely" after fan tackles beloved Marty the Marmot at Royals game
Victoria News-- Victoria Royals fan could face assault charges in Marty the Marmot incident
Island Sports News-- Royals victory overshadowed by Centre-Ice tackle of Beloved Marty-the-Marmot
National Post-- Police investigating after fan attacks beloved junior hockey mascot Marty the Marmot..
Yahoo.ca-- Marty the Marmot, Canada's mascot of the year, attacked during WHL game
Global TV-- Victoria Royals beloved mascot Marty the Marmot attacked at hockey game