It’s hard to see such a solution for the case where the cat surprises an unarmed runner in a ‘front country’ setting.
The cat was probably already irreparably damaged by previous habituation to humans. A big predator that is habituated can very seldom be rehabilitated, and the kindest outcome that I could foresee would likely be euthanasia. Just as some wild creatures will get in an automobile accident and be beyond rehabilitation because of physical injury that would keep them from functioning on their own, some will be injured behaviourally and be equally unable to function in their native habitat.
I’ve always been a bit of a bleeding-heart about wildlife, but recognize reluctantly that we have also to be realistic. Even in my teens, I certainly agreed (painfully) that the black bear sow who’d taken up residence in my uncle’s tractor barn had to be destroyed, just as every couple of years when the chipmunks find their way into my house in the autumn, they must be destroyed as well. (They will acclimate to central heating, they won’t have built proper burrows, and if I just trap them ‘humanely’ and put them outside, they’ll freeze to death or be killed by a neighbour’s cat.) I don’t like putting any creature down, but sometimes it’s the only responsible thing to do.
