Posted on 05/25/2011 4:56:20 PM PDT by Daffynition
UPDATE 9:20 a.m. - Charlene Wilkinson just wanted to read the news, not be the news when she picked up the Independent Record off her porch Wednesday morning.
Then she got a call from the Helena Police dispatcher shortly after 7 a.m., telling her to stay inside and move away from the windows because a mountain lion was curled up on her front porch, precisely where she had picked up her newspaper just moments earlier.
"They told me not to even look out the window because I could startle it and it could go through the window," Wilkinson said, recalling a Townsend mountain lion that did just that. "So I got away from the window and called my son."
Moments later, Dave Loewen, a game warden with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, shot the year-old mountain lion from the safety of his truck.
Loewen said they initially wanted to dart the lion and capture it, but it was too dangerous to do that in the residential neighborhood.
"I couldn't get a clean shot, and if I darted it and it didn't take effect, it would run off. I didn't want to make a second problem," Loewen said.
The lion was on the porch in the quiet subdivision just west of the St. Peter's Group medical building, near the corner of Road Runner and Sand Piper Loop.
Check tomorrow's Independent Record for more on this story.
Lewis & Clark County Sheriff's Department and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials have located a mountain lion on the 100 block of Sandpiper Loop. Authorities have cornered the lion on a porch of a house and are asking people to stay out of the area and residents to stay in their homes until the lion is darted.
PING!
I would have told him to get the hell of my property. Tell him to not look into my window or he may get shot.
To hell with governmental power to “do good”. Get off my property. Bobcat will be dealt with.
Because english is my third language, after Swahili and Greek, I wrote “of” when I meant “off”. Damn engrish @#$#$^%%$^&!!!
TOMORROWS HEADLINE:
PETA HAS LOEWEN ARRESTED FOR MURDER. ACLU TO PROSECUTE
No..but it was a clean enough shot to kill it. Makes me sick. I might get "flamed" but imo, these aholes that decide to kill before trying darts or tranqulizers are nothing but a bunch of unlearned hicks too lazy to 'track' the animal should it run off after the dart.
In our country now we must preserve the spotted-freakin'-owl, or some beetle or some stupid minnow type species. but we're suppose to believe that this mountain lion, had to be put down?? For what?
Libs and stupid people only care about the easiest thing to preserve.
I’m with you. After his nap, this one-year-old would have sauntered off on his own.
Trigger-happy guy in a pickup truck!
Because they can and will kill people.
I swear if I have one phobia in life it is mountain lions. I get freaked out seeing them at the zoo. And believe it or not but there have been mountain lions all the way here in Chicago, not joking...
Absolutely, if I spotted one of these my lawn I would shoot the damn thing to Mars.
HA! That’s a riot!
Poor kitty.
Why they are not bothering you. Cats like to attack when they have the element of surprise. Mtn lions who lay down or curl up are not threatening in any way. Now if you were jogging or hiking high up in the mountains and they are perched up on a rock and you don’t see them its a different story. I bet you could have scared kitty off with a broom. Cats know when they have the advantage.
Why would you shoot the cat? He wasn’t threatening anyone. Peoples ignorace baffles me. This kind of attitude is what leads to mass extinction of big cats and other animals in africa and elsewhere. You leave them alone they leave you alone. Besides they help control the deer populations.
Now people put out feeders, take pictures and try to put their grandchildren on the back of the animal for a souvenir photo.
Thanks for the ping.
It seems there are more and more of them becoming adjusted to humans.
In Hesperia, CA this week there was a young male cougar found in a garage and it was suspected he’d been there for three days. It was tranquilized and relocated which was probably a mistake.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Actually, facts are quite different. You should read the experience the Lib/Green/Nuts from Boulder, CO have had about large predators in residential areas. The large cats are dangerous, and humans are not safe. The problems arise from tolerating predators in nonwild environments. The animals need to know that there are boundaries between their territory and human territory. My explanation is oversimplified, but read about the Boulder experience.
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