Posted on 12/19/2014 5:41:58 AM PST by Scoutmaster
A Fish and Wildlife official near Paris, Kentucky responded to the call about a young male mountain lion in a tree and though it best to 'dispatch it.'
Once native to the state, cougars have not been spotted there since before the Civil War.
An agency spokesman said, 'it seemed to be in very healthy condition' and that shooting it was the proper course of action
An examination of a mountain lion killed by a Kentucky Fish and Wildlife official has found that it was a 125-pound male that appeared to be young and healthy.
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
125 lbs...
I’d hate for that thing to hit me at 35-40 mph...with claws extended.
As someone who's been to Philmont Scout Reservation I know I'm not going to forget the nighttime sound of a mountain lion. If you ever spent the night on The Wall side of Mount Baldy, or at Indian Writings, or Mountain Park (?), you had a really good chance of hearing more than one.
I've been to Philmont twice and encountered a mountain lion twice on the second trek. Magnificent, and I understand exactly what you mean about your mind not being able to process it . . . except that the first one followed us, at night, in the brush, on either side of the four-wheel drive road, for a mile or less.
The only Scouts who knew were the two crew leaders. We had them keep the crew singing and talking loudly the rest of the way from the Harlan (?) burro races back to Deer Lake Mesa.
Is the sneering, condescending trashing of rural American males really necessary?
I read someplace that only one person has ever been recorded as killed by a Mountain Lion. They should of let it live.
And they have white meat like pork, not possum.
A long time ago (30 years) I was buying a print from a local artist. He had a pen and ink drawing of a cougar he had seen in PA. He said a ranger asked where he saw it because the one he drew was supposed to be extinct but he refused to tell him. I remember mention of one being in Philly...
http://phillyist.com/2008/01/24/philadelphia_we.php
“Our first port of call is the consistent mystery pertaining to sightings of elusive, almost phantom felids, such as the cougar. Pennsylvania’s last pair of mountain lions were said to have been destroyed in 1871, yet over one hundred years later sightings continue throughout Philadelphia. Are witnesses merely seeing ordinary cats, or other local wildlife such as deer, and mistaking them for these slinking, fawn-coloured shadow cats? Or do the dark corners of the city hide a small population of creatures thought long gone?
Proof of such prowling animals is not exactly in abundance, hence the mythical status these cats have brought among themselves, but tracks, fresh kills on livestock, eerie screams during the night and countless eye-witness reports seemingly point to the existence of this predator which officials have dismissed for decades. However, during the mid-1990s a small cougar flap took place in Philly, particularly around Delaware and creeping into the suburbs of Philadelphia. Such animals, although denied, have vast territories of several hundred square miles and often live up to their reputation as being elusive, hence their nicknames ‘ghost cat’ and ‘shadow cat.’ However, one such cat was killed on the outskirts of Philly in 1967.
Further proof of such cats hit the headlines in 1996 when an animal resembling a cougar was filmed and shown on Philadelphia area television. However, it’s more than likely that the ‘mythical’ tag will follow such animals wherever they go, unless one unfortunate victim turns up dead for scientific analysis, and only then will it prove what we’ve already known for years, that the eastern cougar is still alive and well.”
Mountain lions are not a threat. This conservation officer is a moron.
An uncle and aunt from Midwest City, OK, always owned Cougars, but they never had one with cowl induction. My '71 SS 396, however . . . and the factory pins to hold the front of the hood down, although the car was (let's keep this between ourselves, K?) an automatic.
There was the little problem of < 7 mpg, IIRC.
Mountain Lions are all over New Mexico. I saw one outside of Tatum. There are plenty of antelope for them to munch on. They (mountain lions) reappeared as the area depopulated. Imagine getting in a scrape with one of them. A 8 lb. kittycat can scratch you up pretty good - imagine what a 100+ lb cat could do. :)
Kill off the cougars before the feral government moves the timber wolves in.
“Yep, that’s the redneck solution to any animal in a tree.”
It’s one thing to have cougars, coyotes, and wolves in wilderness areas, and a completely different thing to have them roaming through backyards and farms.
(The Niel Diamond or Grand Funk version of Kentucky Woman? The latter for me.)
I'm an equal opportunity trasher who happens to live in the southeast.
We could do upper midwest, Yooper, New England, Philly, Chicago, Maine (as distinct from New England), Boston (as distinct from New England), South Florida, Florida Panhandle, Texas (West Texas, South Texas, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Panhandle, German hill country, Wichita Falls), SoCal, NoCal, Portland, Seattle, Utah, Alaska, NYNY, rural NY, Long Island, the Bronx, Jersey (depending on the exit), Sand Mountain (AL), Indianapolis, WDC, Sedona . . .
I have found that the rangers and such are mostly leftist and they lie.
We had significant coyote packs a few years ago and when I called the wildlife government folks they told me that there was never an coyote pack attack on a human. As I sat there on my computer and listed out attacks nationally. They lied and lied.
Don’t trust people who think wild animals matter more than humans.
I received a photo this week of a cougar spotted just across the Tennessee line in North Carolina. I’d guess it might be around 125 pounds, not really big.
Given the fantastic increase in deer populations, the predators will come and thrive unless shot
I, by choice, live in a suburb where Main Street is called Main Street, Main Street is only three blocks long, and the annual town day includes a flip-flop parade. Camo is not a fashion choice, it's a lifestyle, and I can spit from here and hit three gun stores. I don't hunt, but I get my venison each year from a fellow Scout leader who does.
I would rather eat possum, and I have, than go to a country club.
If you have a problem with the youngest Johnson girl's bad eye, then just get me started on the interbreeding of Boston society, both Gentile and Jewish, or the names given children in Utah, or how the best Pacific Northwestern food I ever ate (as someone who lived in Seattle) was in Sioux Falls, SD.
If the mountain lion get tired of chasing antelope in NM, they can alway eat mule deer. That’s what they do at Philmont. They seem to leave the antelope and the elk alone, at least judging from the freshly bloodied bones you see along the trails.
I agree they should have let the cat live. Siting a big cat in the wild is extremely rare and awesome.
But I have to disagree that only one person has been killed by a mountain lion. A young man was killed this summer in one of the western states. Also I think that a few bicyclists and joggers have been killed in California in recent history.
LOL!
Shameful. I hope animal rights folks in KY will get busy.
Forty years ago, my wife, her brother and her father saw a mountain lion in Central Arkansas where there are no mountain lions according to the Fish and Game commission.
It is believed there is a mountain lion just to the west of us in NW Arkansas as two people scouting for a place to deer hunt saw something long and lean slink off into the brush ahead of them.
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