shoot the cougar

[rowd]

COUGAR KILLED | Cops, mayor defend shooting as experts try to find how predator got here (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/896894,CST-NWS-cougar16.article)




You didn't believe it, did you? You didn't believe it until you saw the big cat laid out on that concrete slab. You didn't believe there was a cougar running loose in the Chicago area.

OK, maybe you thought it was possible as in "anything's possible," but be honest, your first instinct when those cougar sightings started rolling in a few weeks ago from the north suburbs was that somebody was getting carried away.


http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedia/041608cougar_cst_feed_20080415_20_06_11_509-282-400.imageContent

He's real folks.............Just glad no kids got hurt.:eek:

[jfcjrus]

Yes, I'm also glad no children were eaten.

But I'm NOT CONVINCED that the cougar had to die.
Every report of the incident I've read just reeks of incompetence by those 'in authority'.

Just my opinion, of course.
Regards,

[Lovehound]

But I'm NOT CONVINCED that the cougar had to die.

It seems they had a police response rather than an animal control department response, not that it wasn't a good idea to get the police on scene. It's hard to know if the police had the option to wait for animal control to arrive, and hard to know if routine animal control vehicles carry tranquilizer darts. Not knowing that I guess we'll just have to hope that the situation was urgent enough that the cat had to die.

[Arc]

Yes, I'm also glad no children were eaten.

But I'm NOT CONVINCED that the cougar had to die.


Yep.

He was a youngster and only a little over half size too--2 years and 122 lbs. A full grown large male runs 200-240 lbs. Off all the different members of the cat family the cougar is near the top in terms of physical abilities and a predisposition to avoid humans in most circumstances.

[Sierra Mike]

I'm pretty sure they don't have the required experience to deal with a cat of this size, so animal control probably would have asked the cops to shoot him anyway. And they do have an on-again/off-again history (http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks_ca.html) in southern California:

2004
8 January. (Attacks #12 and 13; death #6) 35-year-old Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, an amateur mountain bike racer, was reported as being killed by a mountain lion sometime after 1:25 p.m. at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in southern Orange County. His bicycle was later found with the chain unbroken, but off the sprockets. Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, speculated that Mark was attacked as he was fixing his bike.

However, the autopsy results apparently show no damage to his neck at all, or any damage indicative of an actual attack that caused his death.

The speculation that fits the facts best is that Mark had a heart attack while riding his bike, fell off his bike, causing the chain to fall off the sprockets. The cougar then simply scavenged him while he was dead on the ground. Unfortunately, as is typically the case for lion feeding, the heart was missing, so we'll never know for sure if he did have a heart attack.

Later the same day, Anne Hjelle, 30, of Santa Ana, a former Marine who works as a fitness instructor, was jumped by the same mountain lion. Anne was attacked a short distance down the trail from Mark's body, which was not visible to her, while she was riding her mountain bicycle. The lion jumped her from a slight rise (~4 feet) on the right hand side of the trail, from under some high brush. The lion quickly had Anne's face in its mouth, despite the presence of Anne's helmet. Her riding companion, Debi Nicholls, was about 30 feet behind Anne and witnessed the attack. Debi threw her bike at the mountain lion, to no avail, then grabbed Anne's legs and screamed as the lion dragged both of them 30 feet down the slope into the brush. The lion kept attacking Anne, alternating between her helmet, face and neck. The screams brought Nils Magnuson, 33, of Long Beach, and Mike Castellano to the scene, who called 911 and scared off the mountain lion by throwing rocks at it.

Anne was airlifted to Mission Hospital. Her condition was initially critical, was upgraded from serious as of early 9 January, and to fair as of 10 January.

Nils was nearby since he had just found Mark's bicycle, and was about to look for Mark. (Mountain bikers crash fairly frequently, so finding a crashed bicycle is not an unusual occurrence. It is customary to stop and render aid to crashees.) After this attack, Mark's body was found dead higher on the trail than where Anne was attacked. Mark had apparently been dead for some hours, and his body had been half-eaten and partially buried, typical of a mountain lion kill.

Later that night, Sheriff's deputies shot and killed a healthy 3- to 4-year-old, 110-122 pound male lion, which was spotted 50 yards from the man's body. Initial tests found human skin tissue, and portions of a human lung and liver in the lion's stomach, which were confirmed later to match Mark's DNA. No fibers from Anne's clothing, nor any slivers from her helmet, were found in the initial examination, but later DNA tests matched Anne to the blood on one of the lion's claws. Curiously, no deer hairball was found in the lion.

Also that night, about four miles north of these attacks, a second mountain lion, a 70 pound female, was hit by a car and killed. This lion was not involved in either attack.

Although Whiting Ranch was closed for two days about a year earlier due to the sighting of a mountain lion and her two young cubs, the lion linked to the attacks could not have been one of those cubs, due to its age.

Eric Sanderson reports that many deer frequent Whiting Ranch, so there was a plentiful supply of the normal food resource for a cougar. Eric routinely sees a couple of deer on each of his noontime rides.

For readers not in Southern California, Whiting Ranch is in Orange County, 44 air miles southeast from the city of Los Angeles and 71 air miles north of the city of San Diego. More precisely, the park is between the city of Irvine and the Cleveland National Forest (Thomas Brothers Map #862, G5).

SM

[Piobaireachd]

We have had a few of these incidences around here as well: http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=20597&TM=65665.55

[Arc]

I'm pretty sure they don't have the required experience to deal with a cat of this size, so animal control probably would have asked the cops to shoot him anyway.


I have two words for you: Tranquilizer gun.

Pretty standard stuff. Where I live we have cougars and bears and lots of other wildlife. (The cougar encounters are very rare in my neighborhood--they are normally a very keep a low-profile cat--probably the most so of all the big cat family.) The freaking bears are all over the place. They never bother anyone per se until some out-of-town hick is driving through our neighborhood, spots a bear drinking from a sprinkler, hose, pool or whatever and then calls the cops who are FORCED to respond we end up having Yogi up the tree scared shitless no matter how big he is, new helicopters overhead and a dog and pony show until some does something and that something is, you guessed it, shoots him with a tranquilizer gun.

For one week about two years ago we spotted a cougar in the yard next door. The second time the cops were called. They showed up in about three or four cars. I live in highly wooded area with very low light. The cops, just doing their duty started to go off in to the darkness and thick foliage including lots of trees. I told them, hey guys never split off alone and frankly if I were you I would pass. If the lion wants you, the first guy has no chance. The went in but the lion was long gone.

[Coot]

Chicago missed a real opportunity here. They could have rehabilitated a lot of gang bangers by getting them to run up and kick that cougar in the ass in order to get in shape for the 2012 Olympics.

[/sarc]