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Mountain lion killed on resident's porch
Independent Record | ^ | May 25, 2011 | EVE BYRON

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.


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: cougar; mountainlion
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To: Stayfrosty
The cat has become unafraid of humans. Have you seen or read what a mountain lion can do to a human? If a human survives an attack they have very grievous injuries.
21 posted on 05/25/2011 6:20:02 PM PDT by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Daffynition

Where I live we follow the code...

Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up.

They die so our children may live.


22 posted on 05/25/2011 6:21:09 PM PDT by Randy Larsen (Wise To The Lies!)
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To: Randy Larsen

A lion comortable enough to curl up on a porch is a lion who has no fear of people and people should fear them.

We also shoot, shovel and shut up.


23 posted on 05/25/2011 6:26:33 PM PDT by tiki
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To: Daffynition


24 posted on 05/25/2011 6:37:35 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Outlaw Woman
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?

oh, please....it was a mountain lion on someones porch, had they tranquilized it and took it into the wild, how soon do you suppose it would have come back...wild animals which have no fear of humans are VERY dangerous....killing it was the right thing to do! Libs and stupid people only care about the easiest thing to preserve

25 posted on 05/25/2011 7:08:00 PM PDT by terycarl
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To: All
I keep a shotgun by the back door for Cougars and Bears that might wander into our yard.

Our property backs right up to the National Forest, so we have to be prepared.

26 posted on 05/25/2011 7:15:33 PM PDT by troy McClure
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To: Palladin
"Trigger-happy guy in a pickup truck!"

In East Fort Worth, that would have been considered a Drive By shooting.

In other parts of the state, a Road Shooter...Poacher.

27 posted on 05/25/2011 7:37:00 PM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: Stayfrosty
I'm not hunting the cat. I'm saying if a big mountain lion that can kill me comes at me or is looking at me aggressively I will shoot it.

There are many phobias for people. Afraid of heights, claustrophobia, arachnophobia, well I'm mountain lionphobic. So I'm sure PETA can sue me for that, but I have nightmares about them things.

The horrid stories of young children, pets, joggers, ect... being mauled by mountain lions is insane.

I put out a challenge (besides democrats) what species in the United States of America is more aggressive towards humans than mountain lions?

28 posted on 05/25/2011 7:48:02 PM PDT by Dengar01 (Go Bulls!!!)
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To: Outlaw Woman

You’ll get no argument from me. The cat was minding its own business.


29 posted on 05/25/2011 7:55:03 PM PDT by rabidralph
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To: Dengar01

I am with you on the phobia. I probably shouldn’t have read this...we have a wooded area in our back yard, it’s our children’s favorite place to play. Now I’ll be in fear mode for the next several months every time they go back there.


30 posted on 05/25/2011 9:10:01 PM PDT by Spudx7
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To: Palladin

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!

_________________________

He is a game warden. They aren’t usually trigger happy. MT takes their wildlife very seriously but there’s been plenty of ugly incidents where cats ‘minding their own business’ hurt people when startled.


31 posted on 05/25/2011 10:33:09 PM PDT by leapfrog0202 ("the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery" Sarah Palin)
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To: Outlaw Woman

Charlene was in the house. Can you imagine the potential danger to getting killed by a stray HP shot from the officer’s gun
I *love* it, he shot from the *safety* of his vehicle. Much bigger chance of that happening than getting killed by the lion. Morons. Twice over.


32 posted on 05/25/2011 11:14:30 PM PDT by Daffynition ("Don't just live your life, but witness it also.")
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To: JoeProBono

33 posted on 05/25/2011 11:18:29 PM PDT by Daffynition ("Don't just live your life, but witness it also.")
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To: Palladin; Outlaw Woman

I agree with both of you. How many people get killed by mountain lions a year?

It’s very rare to get harmed by a mountain lion. They’re all over the place here and I have never seen one. Just heard them, seen their prints and scat, and deer they’ve killed. I prefer mountain lions to most people.


34 posted on 05/25/2011 11:34:36 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: Daffynition

That is an awesome photo. The north American Mountain lion-cougar is, imo, the most beautiful out of all the big cats on the planet.

Thx for posting that.


35 posted on 05/26/2011 12:07:13 AM PDT by Outlaw Woman ("...; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,... "Hosea 4:6)
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To: little jeremiah

I prefer mountain lions to most people.

me too lj (especially in the insane world we now have to live in)


36 posted on 05/26/2011 12:09:53 AM PDT by Outlaw Woman ("...; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,... "Hosea 4:6)
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To: Dengar01

Also if cats that aren’t afraid of human’s, they raise their young to also stay in the human area....those that stay away have cubs that usually stay away also....Any predator within an area that can kill a child should be done away with....our ancestors were smarter than todays people, they knew a danger when they saw it and eleminated it...


37 posted on 05/26/2011 12:38:56 AM PDT by goat granny
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To: Outlaw Woman; mountainlion
Agree with you.


38 posted on 05/26/2011 5:20:11 AM PDT by Daffynition ("Don't just live your life, but witness it also.")
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To: goat granny
our ancestors were smarter than todays people, they knew a danger when they saw it and eleminated it

No doubt. This is what comes of the animals-are-people-too mentality. These people are just nuts. I wonder if they'd stand behind their pots-and-pans tactics if the cat had returned and killed a human at a later date. Sadly, they probably would.


39 posted on 05/26/2011 6:34:05 AM PDT by ConservativeWarrior (In last year's nests, there are no birds this year.)
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To: Outlaw Woman
Ma'am, I respectfully disagree. I say kill them before you put a child at risk. I say children have more value than mountain lions, although I do have a love and respect for wild animals.

I have had exactly one closeup encounter with a mountain lion, while riding my mountain bike in a semi-rural area.

I was close enough to see his enormous, sinewy, lithe muscles under his coat, and there was no doubt in my mind he could have easily killed me that day. He was about 50 feet away, hanging out in an area where bunny rabbits were known to congregate in the afternoon to munch on grass, just off the trail I was riding (illegally!).

He looked like a sub adult, but his tail was thicker than my arm, and his shoulder muscles looked like coils of cable. He was immense!

This occured on Sheep Camp Trail, just west of Belmont, CA. The next week I moved to Texas.

40 posted on 05/26/2011 6:50:43 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns (Novare Res!)
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