From today's Kansas City Star:
Truth comes out in area mountain lion killing
By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH
The Kansas City Star
For a cattleman who claimed to have shot a marauding mountain lion in Ray County last week, Bob Littleton was pretty sheepish.
He didn’t shoot the big cat.
It was a mile down the road, not even on his land, when killed.
And while he still says a lion might have got one of his calves, no cow meat was found in the cat’s belly.
Now the Richmond man, 60, said he was protecting a buddy — the shooter, James McElwee — who he feared had violated the Missouri Wildlife Code.
“Jimmy doesn’t have a dime to his name, and I could afford a fine,” said Littleton.
McElwee, 29, of Camden, Mo., was hunting raccoons when his light caught the glare of strange eyes. He told conservation agent Tammy Pierson he was afraid it would attack.
“Jimmy weighs maybe 130 pounds. The cougar weighed 115. The public needs to know that these animals can easily take down an adult buck,” said a sympathetic Pierson.
No charges will be filed.
“I’ve told three lies in my life,” Littleton said. “Two of them when I was a kid and I got in a lot of trouble.
“And this one, well, I feel like an ass now.”
Read more:
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/11...#ixzz1AphVoHTs
