*sigh* Cougar Hanging Out In Area

Ah yes, It's a well known fact that good tight fences make the best neighbors, but if yer ground was as rocky as mine, you'd soon find it ain't all that much fun. Engarde!

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almost two years ago a biker was attacked in california by a cougar. It made the news because her friend and others had to fight the animal off of her and get her to safety. As the chopper was taking the woman out, it blew up leaves and stuff and the pilot discovered another body, dead, killed then hidden by the same cat. This man was a family friend. His folks live in the mid-west.
The Sacramento paper said that the autospy report stated that Mark died from "removal of internal organs by a preditor".
I remember this, because Marks mother spent the next week on her sofa saying "removal of internal organs by a preditor". "Why couldn't he have just fallen off a cliff."
This guy was the picture of health, his life was biking and for a while even worked for Lance Armstrong. Yet, he couldn't protect himself.
I heard a guy on the radio say one time, the enviromental laws no longer protect the people. It's time to shoot, shovel, and shut-up.

I can tell you exactly what Mark's mom would have done has she had the opportunity to take care of this cougar.

A1, in Arkansas, where the state insists that we have no mountain lions.---ya, right.

We've had a few cougar incidents here.
A family 30 miles south of us had some sheep killed by one, and a couple years ago, somebody lost a colt to one.
I don't know what caused it, but a year or two ago, my daughter and nephew found a deer head in the road still dripping blood.
I will treat a cougar just like a coyote or a stray dog, if it's after our animals (or us), it's on the hit list, and if I get a shot at it, it 's gone.

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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
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Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Please don't close it yet!! I'm learning a lot reading it, in spite of the occasional "drift" those three ladies are taking. The fact is there is a huge balancing act we all have to make concerning man and nature, and I probably will be thrust into that act a little more now, since I own a newer, bigger, and more remote place than my previous 2 acres in the city. And while I don't think central Texas has cougars (am I wrong?), I may in the near future be faced with a predator problem, though it would more likely be coyote, since I fully intend to have horses goats, chickens, geese, bunnies, and whatever else I think I can't live without. Just reading that the LGD's take care of keeping the cougars away has been huge for me - I thought I wanted one or two, but now I KNOW I do!! Also (and I'm thinking of starting a new thread asking for advice on this), it seems most who have answered on this thread have a gun of some sort - I don't. That has been enlightening as well.

So, please, y'all keep talking, keep it civil so the thread doesn't get closed, and keep on teaching...

Pam <------ is thinking she needs a gun AND another dog - or two!

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My Dad always told me, "Honey, you can do anything you put your mind to." He was right.

thank you. but apparently it's not going away any time soon. thought the recent crash had taken care of it, but seems not.

CF- you'd do me a big favor if you HAD shut it down. btw- hadn't gotten any recent requests for stove manuals. have you quit getting them??

Marvella, are you the same person as Harmony/TnMtnFlower?

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

One reason they are supposedly extinct in many areas is that if the DOW acknowledged their presence they would have to come up with a plan to protect them, since they are considered endangered. As a result, their populations and territories are not well documented. They are actually quite wide spread. They are known as cougars, mountain lions, or panthers, but they are all the same and really pretty common throughout the states.

I would like to bring this tread back to the original question.

What is a person to do when he is face to face with a cougar? We have cougars around our house too. And then yesterday the neighbors came over with pictures of a black bear, now you need to know I live in a pretty well developed community.

I will shoot anything attacking me or my kids..... permit or not, hunting season or not. I know I moved in their teretory but I have the right to defend my life too.

Andre

Same things happens here in the Rockies. It's just a given that this is not the place to let small dogs or small livestock roam after dark. Most people are wary of letting their kids play outside unobserved after dark. As everyone around here is rather tightknit with a mix of rightwingers and leftwingers...if I had a mtn lion situation I would call DOW first to at least cover my behind with the law and with my leftwing neighbors. The next time it showed up and created a situation I would probably have my wife call 911 (if there was time) while I dispatched it. The point of the 911 call is to go on record that I felt my life/family's life was threatened before I acted to stop a threat - hate to feel like I need to cowtow to the legal system, but there is no way I could shoot a lion around here without getting caught.

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Sleep is a poor excuse for coffee

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Thought I'd present some additional information on the subject; here's the story from the FARMERS' ADVANCE from this past week about the cougar in south-central Michigan.

"Top news stories from the September 14, 2005 edition, Vol. 107, No. 37"
FARMERS' ADVANCE
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Horse killed by cougar in Jackson County

PARMA TOWNSHIP, MI — The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy has released results of a detailed investigation of a horse killed on Aug. 31 in western Jackson County's Parma Township. Evidence collected by the Conservancy's Director of Wildlife Programs, Dr. Patrick Rusz, two Jackson County animal control officers, and Parma Township supervisor Wendy Chamberlain indicate the healthy 26-year-old Arabian show horse was killed at night by a cougar (mountain lion).

"Sometimes it's hard to tell what killed a large animal," said Dr. Rusz, who has been researching cougars in Michigan for the past seven years. "But this was a no-brainer. The cougar left telltale bite marks along with tracks — everything but a business card."


Rusz came to his conclusions after Officer Machelle Dunlap and Chamberlain had already realized the same. The pair called him after they had ruled out everything else and the supervisor spotted the cougar crossing a road about a mile from the kill site the following day.


"At first I couldn't believe my eyes," said Chamberlain. "I was in my car at about 10 a.m., and was suddenly looking at a full-grown cougar staring back at me right in the road. There was absolutely no doubt what I was looking at from less than 35 feet away. It took its time crossing the road."


Rusz found that the horse was killed by a powerful bite to the neck just behind the base of the skull that likely dropped the horse, literally, "in its tracks." Rusz noted in a detailed report available at www.miwildlife.org that the spacing between the tooth punctures and the locations of the bites matched cougar in every detail. He also found three track prints consistent with cougar where the horse was killed.


"It is now obvious to us that Jackson County has a large, wild cougar," said Chamberlain. "I've seen it with my own eyes at close range, I've seen the adult horse it killed recently, and I've seen its tracks and signs. No one should get worked up about this cougar; however, it is prudent to educate our citizens about the big cat. Free copies of an informative brochure, "Living with Cougars in Michigan," are available at the Township Office and several other prominent locations around Parma Township. Remember the cougar is an endangered species and protected by Michigan law. It cannot be hunted," said Chamberlain.


For more information about the Michigan cougar, or the work of the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy to save this endangered species, visit the organization's website, www.miwildlife.org. Copies of the brochure "Living with Cougars in Michigan" are available free of charge by sending a business-sized, self-addressed stamped envelope to Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, PO Box 393, Bath, MI 48808. Large quantities of the brochure can be obtained free for distribution at organizational meetings, sporting goods outlets, retail establishments and tourist destinations.
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You've got to love the little "extra" that the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy felt that needed their touch......"Living with Cougars in Michigan"......I remember not that many years ago, when the Dept. of Natural Resources was telling everyone, that there were NO COUGARS residing in the wild in Michigan; in either penisula!!! This was about the same time that my wife and I were traveling thru the Seney Wildlife Refuge during the middle of the night and saw a large "cat" run across the roadway. No mistakening it for a "dog" or other critter.
Up until last year, the Dept. was also questioning the statements of folks in the "thumb" area; of their claims that there was at least one wolverine being seen. Finally someone video-taped it from a snowmobile and the DNR said it must have come across Lake Huron from Canada!!! That's a heck of a journey.....but the simple truth is, that those state guys don't have a clue on what is out there......or if they do, they apparently don't want to "cause a panic".....so they claim that whatever you think you saw.....wasn't what you thought it was. The "BIG CATS" are indeed back in Michigan and appear to be ready to stay......checking old records and it appears our "forefathers" pretty well wiped them out back in the late 80's......1880's that is!!! And the wolves in the upper penisula have made such a comeback, that the DNR of both Michigan and Wisconsin are actually suggesting a "limited" hunt to control them; seems they are actually doing what predators do best.....killing innocent livestock in the area and farmers aren't too happy.

About a month ago, a black bear was seen and photographed in southern Hillsdale county; near the border with Ohio/Indiana and there was several news items earlier in the summer, about sightings of a mother/sow and her two cubs in the greater Lansing area......speculation was that one of the cubs was possibly the one now seen near the southern border of the state......since they have a range of over 100 miles.......cougars also have a large travel range; unless they find a nice place that has "plenty of fiddles" close by.

Hey debitabor, we're over in Rives Twnshp. and have been "concerned" about that cougar .....trying to make sure that the stock is in the barn before the sun goes down (not that a hungry cat wouldn't attack in the daylight), but short of patroling the property 24/7, what can you do? Let us know if you hear/see anything further; I don't believe that the local paper let's everything out.

copperkid

yep, it's me.:-) gave up webtv and became marvella when i got a "big girls" computer a couple years ago.:-)

Geeze you folks have me all concerned now, here I sit in the heart of country that I personally know to be infested with mountain lions. I guess I'll have to put all 60 cow/calf pairs in a secure barn every night now.

In more than thirty years here, I've never lost a calf, goat, chicken or even a wandering child to a mountain lion, black bear or grizzly bear. Now owls and hawks are a different matter.

I probably won't be able to sleep again! Would someone kindly stop by and have a peek under my bed?

__________________
Iraq casualties
3,410 American deaths to date in Iraq
25,345 Americans wounded in action to date (your guess how many have died since and been uncounted)
$424,000,000,000 to date