Not safe in them thar woods!!

[Ont_Excal]

Ontario cops kill cougar



MUSKOKA, ONT. - Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources have confirmed that an animal killed by police on the weekend is a cougar, long believed extinct in the province.

Police were called after the large cat killed a family dog in the Muskoka area.

There have been thousands of believed sightings of cougars in Ontario over the past few years, but this marks the first confirmed cougar killed in the province since 1884.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/09/on ... ill-cougar

[Mo wannabe]

They seem to be making a come back. We have alot of sightings of them here in southeast Mo. Since the game cameras came along not much tellin what we are going to find out there !

[j.krug]

Big kitty! Folks been saying they've been seeing them for some time now.

[munch]

i see they say the cat had been declawed and think it came from a zoo up that way

[Bullzeye]

i see they say the cat had been declawed and think it came from a zoo up that way

I hope that is not true, if it is thats pretty sad. We are getting more and more sightings in Quebec also, last year one did a number on a horse, ever since I tend to look up in the trees more lol

[Big58cal]

Just about every place that doesn't have an honest to goodness confirmed population, if there's just a few sightings or a few killed, the DNR/F&W agency will always say that it was an escaped pet. It doesn't matter if there really is a breeding population there, it's an "escaped pet".

If the DNR/F&W agency acknowledges that the animals are there and are breeding, then they have to expend the resources and money and develop management plans for them and are on the hook for any depredation losses.

Of course, if you talk with anyone in the agency about it, they'll deny it.

[Broadside]

There's a little more info in this article:

http://www.windsorthisweek.ca/2012/07/0 ... ill-cougar.

[papa bear1]

Been several sightings here in the ozarks hills of missouri, and like has been said since trail cameras came they can't be denied,anymore, Makes a person be a little more cautious,in the darkness, of the before daylight hours. Here Kitty, Kitty ,Kitty

Dave

[vixenmaster]

The Mrs & i were eatin lunch back in july of 09 here on the place when a female Mtn. lion strolled by us about 40 yds & stopped to give us a look!

[Cossack]

That's great...as long as they don't take a likin' to folks. We now have some 3500 wolves here in MN; there will even be a season this fall ND had a cougar season last yr. More things to hunt....and get hunted by.

[robertyb]

We have had reports of them here in Georgia for years and years. A few years ago a hunter actually shot one and brought it in an it was featured in Ga. Sportsman Magazine. Everyone was saying it was a tame cat that had got loose. Turned out it was a wild cougar from out west that had travelved a long long ways. It was identified by it's DNA. The hunter was eventually fined a pretty stiff fine cause it was a Federally protected species.

So.. last year GON wrote up another article about supposed sightings in Georgia and offered $1,000.00 to anyone that could produce proof of a cougar sighting in Georgia within a year. There were lots and lots of claims made but no one ever got the money. Thousands of trail camera pictures were sent in but not a single one was a cougar. We do have some amazingly large Bobcats around the State though.

[bugs]

I find it quite shocking no one seems to mention in any article that the cougars are endangered in ON and that it is illegal to kill one. Just because there have been many sightings doesnt mean there is a large population becase their territory is a large range. Simply killing a family pet does not give police the right to kill an endangered species and they should be charged by the MNR as far as I am concerned. Do they come out to the country and kill a coyote or a weasal that kills a farm animal if we call them? NO Just because it is a predatory animal does not mean it should be treated differently than any other species on the endangered species list

[papa bear1]

I find it quite shocking no one seems to mention in any article that the cougars are endangered in ON and that it is illegal to kill one. Just because there have been many sightings doesnt mean there is a large population becase their territory is a large range. Simply killing a family pet does not give police the right to kill an endangered species and they should be charged by the MNR as far as I am concerned. Do they come out to the country and kill a coyote or a weasal that kills a farm animal if we call them? NO Just because it is a predatory animal does not mean it should be treated differently than any other species on the endangered species list

X 2 You go girl

Dave

[Ont_Excal]

Just about every place that doesn't have an honest to goodness confirmed population, if there's just a few sightings or a few killed, the DNR/F&W agency will always say that it was an escaped pet. It doesn't matter if there really is a breeding population there, it's an "escaped pet".

If the DNR/F&W agency acknowledges that the animals are there and are breeding, then they have to expend the resources and money and develop management plans for them and are on the hook for any depredation losses.

Of course, if you talk with anyone in the agency about it, they'll deny it.

X2
Just because the OMNR declares them endangered does not make it so.
There is a known population from Alaska all the way down to the bottom end of South America.
Easier to slap a label on them than to actually manage them.

In this case, we are not given all the details either.
The OPP are not a bunch of gunslingers going around looking for something to kill.
It is entirely possible that there was no option but the end result.
If there was not any imminent danger the OMNR would have been called to tranquilize and remove the animal.
They do it with bears all the time.

Personally if I can't get to my vehicle safely and trying multiple times to do so I'll let my Excal do the talking whether it be a coyote or a cougar. Whichever it is will have a burial in the dark and the only witness will be me and I won't be talking about it.

[Big58cal]

Whichever it is will have a burial in the dark and the only witness will be me and I won't be talking about it.

I'm a very firm believer in the 3-S's:

Shoot
Shovel
Shut-up