Posted on 05/12/2008 1:18:00 PM PDT by george76
The video shot in Jack Foerschler’s barn shows his flock of sheep lying quietly in the dark...
The flock seems peaceful, until the animals are suddenly startled. A nanosecond later, a blur leaps into the screen and tackles one of the sheep. The ewe is able to escape momentarily, jumping up from the creature’s clutches, running to the viewer’s left. But the invader is faster. It bounds to its feet and extends a claw toward its fleeing prey.
The viewer can see its massive claws, slender muscular body and distinctively long tail.
The culprit that killed four ewes, a ram and seven lambs ...
“I’ve never had a mountain lion kill sheep,” Foerschler said this week, relieved that his suspicion that someone had shot his animals was wrong. “I’ve lost one to a coyote, lots to dogs, but never to a lion or a bullet. I can say now, never a bullet.”
Kevin Lansford, predator biologist and staff specialist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said there are an estimated 2,500 mountain lions statewide. Solitary creatures, the females weigh between 85 and 100 pounds. Males weigh between 130 to 170 pounds. From nose to tip of tail they can be anywhere from six to seven feet long, said Lansford.
And their behavior when going after prey mimics no other animal.
“Their power and prowess and their ability to stalk and hunt large animals is amazing,” .
It’s not uncommon for someone to confuse a lion kill with a gunshot wound,
(Excerpt) Read more at nevadaappeal.com ...
.
The story makes more sense when you look at the pictures with the article (from the video). These sheep weren’t inside a barn, they were in an outdoor pen adjacent to a barn. I was wondering how the mountain lion got into the barn, since presumably a rancher who’d already lost several sheep would close and secure the barn door if his sheep were insie for the night.
PETA should protest the mountain lion’s actions. How horrible, to rip a living animal apart limb from limb, and consume it raw.
These critters have got to be killed, because not only does it mean that this mountain lion has “keyed in on livestock,” it means that it’s lost its fear of humans, or it would never have been that close.
Did you know that in the ancient Middle East (and, actually, even in more modern sheep-raising parts of Europe such as Spain), the shepherd would sleep across the threshold to the sheep-pen? This prevented the sheep from going out and anything else from coming in. Hence Jesus’ words, “I am the gate of the sheep...”
Global Warming to blame?
The first ( top ) video looks like the inside of a barn.
Still, he should have closed the barn door ?
Mountain lions doing the jobs the butcher does not want to do (pass the mint jelly, please....)
At least the NDW had enough sense not to relocate it.
I wonder if having a donkey or 2 onsite would have prevented a mountain lion from getting into the pen area like it did.
My first thought viewing that was, “Boy, that’s a puny mounatin lion.”
That explains it!
Vince Foster was killed by a mountain lion!
For me, a total urbanite, it seems to be strange behavior in that the lion killed far beyond what one would think for hunger needs. Maybe because they were penned up but still strange (I wonder if it was all of the penned sheep?). There is also the fact (though PETA would deny it probably) a blood-lust, joy in the ability to do something, that does NOT solely exist for humans.
Forget that. Put a mountain ram in that pen and see how long the lion keeps coming back.
It’s Bush’s fault.
...there’s a good reason that mountain lions were almost wiped out in this country....they’re dangerous....last month one was shot in Chicago...down the way from Wrigley Field where the Cubs and Reds were playing...DNA showed the lion was from the Black Hills of S.D....that cat traveled some 900 miles and ended up getting shot by a cop in an alley.
Put a picture of Hillary in the sheep pen.
More likely that PETA would proteste the evil farmer/rancher for keeping animals in closed quarters.
They do not need to be wiped out just hunted like other species that need controlling.
One would think that after a while the cat would learn that sheep always taste like sheep and go find someone who has goats or something better.
Donkeys are fantastic watch-animals. Hearing a burro “go off” in the middle of the night - which they do even if a human being they know steps outside to view the night sky - is unforgettable and nobody who wasn’t stone deaf could sleep through it!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.