Posted on 11/25/2007 7:35:09 AM PST by rellimpank
Wildlife goes head-to-head with passionate pet owners who encroach on habitat in a battle for territorial rights and respect. And as state officials know, there is no bad guy.
Well after midnight, a groggy but frantic Jeremy Kocar groped for his hunting rifle and fumbled ammunition all over the floor. His wife screamed hysterically while, outside the door to their camp trailer, a predator prepared to make a meal of the family pet.Kocar managed to load three rounds and stumble into the dark of the wooded foothills near Nederland. Guided by a flashlight's beam, he steadied the rifle and fired a single bullet through the head of a 160-pound mountain lion that had clamped its jaws into a dog named Duke, still tethered to a tree.
What he considered a lucky shot — and the jarring recoil of public opinion that followed — marked a flashpoint for the state's evolving animal ethos
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
“In Rocky Mountains...pussy eats YOU!”
Seriously, they ought to change the dog’s name from “Duke” to “Bait”.
Having interviewed the Kocars twice (on videotape, too) I can say the cat pulled the dog out from under a vehicle where it cowered, trying to escape the cat.
Do try to remember that until America departed from its historic predator management, such problems really did not occur.
As this post may attract some attentionamongst the FR community, I shall post an article or two here as they are published elsewhere.
Do remember that the first naturalist of Yellowstone wrote that the reason that wolves (and, by extension, all large bodied predators) were not the danger to people in America that they were to Old World people was that such predators “learned to their great regret, that nearly every man and boy carried a rifle”.
“When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen”.
If you are from Florida, I propose that they allow alligators to roam wild everywhere. Keep the children in the house so they can watch bambi and wild kingdom.
Maybe a good thing would be to drop a den of Wolves into downtown St Louis? Sounds like an acceptable trade off.
I bet the wolves were there before the French Settlers came up the Mississippi.
Yep, wild predators are surely compatable with suburban and rural human habitat. Soon coming to your neighborhood.
Jeremy and Angela were camped on public land, but the dog was theirs. And, an argument can be made that as citizens, they were on “their” land - the state is the steward of the land, which is different from private citizen ownership of land.
Well, used to be, anyway.
Hunters in Idaho often grab a mountain lion tag just to cover the off chance that a big kitty shows up uninvited when hunting something entirely different. I just grabbed a copy of the big game hunt information from Idaho Fish & Game. I've missed all the deer seasons. There is a Spring black bear season.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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