murdered coons

[Jstpssng]

I bet people had something to do with this,[they generally do ],,thingy

i agree, given the description. However, I'd still contact the state wildlife service in case disease is the source.

 

[johnk]

I'd call the DEC in your area and have them check to make sure they weren't Rabid. Disease spreads easily and contact with dead animal or its blood will infect you. Clorox will kill the rabies and i would wash down the areas if so infected. I would call the DEC just to ease my mind for the protection of your dogs and other animals you don't want to die. Just a suggestion...Keep us posted..

 

[johnk]

Heres a few pics of a critter in Chautauqua county NY. I heard these were released to control the deer population in the area...That ain't no little pussycat.....It was watching the picture takers cats playing inside on a cat tower.

 

[thatguy]

WOW... what an intersting kitty-kitty.. Hes a brave soul it seems.. Better not let the cats or dogs out alone..

brian

Heres a few pics of a critter in Chautauqua county NY. I heard these were released to control the deer population in the area...That ain't no little pussycat.....It was watching the picture takers cats playing inside on a cat tower.

 

[Tig]

 

[thingy]

The rumor here in southern w.va. is that they turned some of those mountain lions loose to,,,its like big brother owns everything,,,they have stocked cyotes here too,animals like that just don't get reestablised in a couple years,,my ancestors killed them all out for a reason,,,wouldn't be so bad if they would let people vote on these things,,they oughta be sued and heads of these departments throwed in jail,,its like your living on rented land or something,I shoot critters every chance I get,I woulda shot that cat too,just not with a camera. thingy

 

[MossRoad]

Rumor..... that's all it is. Yes, the cougars are there( in southwest Michigan, too), that's a fact. How they got there? The most reasonble assumption is they were released by or escaped from exotic pet owners who no longer wanted them or were careless in the way they caged them. The second most reasonable assumption is that the cougars are migrating there from other places. The least believable is "secret" programs by the state governments to place cougars and mountain lions in populated areas to control deer. That would be political suicide and all politicians want to keep their jobs.

 

[drssg]

I heard these were released to control the deer population in the area.

Holy crap! I'd rather have the deer!

 

[mwechtal]

Holy crap! I'd rather have the deer!

But the deer are overpopulating, and then dying off in the winter. People don't hunt as much in the last decade, so they have to control deer numbers some way. NYS IS stocking wolves in the Adirondacks. Of course, they are not about to broadcast that fact. Some relatives I have in that area saw what they thought was a wolf at a distance, and asked the local warden. He confirmed that NYS was stocking them. I had not heard about cougars though.

The animal rights people scream about hunters, but then scream about mass dieoffs of deer in the winter.

Ironically, I recently heard on TV that it's easier to wear real fur now, because the fake stuff looks so good that it's hard to tell the difference. So maybe people can start making a few bucks trapping again.

Mike

 

[BamaRob]

I agree with MossRoad. Conspiracy theorists like to link animal sightings and population growth in an area to some "secret" government project. You know, "The timber companies introduced wolves/alligators/some-other-predator to control the beaver numbers to keep them from flooding so much timber." Or, "The insurance companies introduced wolves/big cats/some-other-predator to control deer numbers because of all the car-deer accidents." But, in most cases, I think there are more plausible explanations. The pictures of the cougar above immediately make me think that it's someones pet that escaped or was released after the owners didn't want to or couldn't care for or contain it any longer. Wild cougars, whether ones that migrated to an area or ones that are introduced by biologists to an area, just don't come up on people's decks. On the other hand a cougar that has been someone's pet would be well accustomed to human structures and would be conditioned to expect food from humans. Hence, when they get hungry, they go looking for a human to feed them.

Rumors of big cats, wolves, etc. being in parts of Alabama come up from time to time. Now, I have no doubt that there are some out there. But, I'm of the opinion that there isn't a viable population of wolves or big cats in Alabama. And, the ones that are spotted from time to time are someone's exotic pet that has escaped.

[Side note] I know a gentleman that has a stuffed wolf that was killed on his property in LA (Lower Alabama ). IIRC, his nephew shot it as it was chasing an adult doe across a field. There's no doubt that it's a wolf. Back in junior college, a local farmer had shot a canine creature that was harassing/killing his cows. The rumor got started that it was a wolf or wolf-hybrid. I went and got the carcass and took it to my professor. He took me to the guy's house to compare it to the wolf. Once you've seen a wolf, there's no mistaking a coyote or dog for a wolf. That thing is long and lean. Probably waist high to a grown man at the withers and every bit of 6'-7' from tip of nose to tip of tail. The critter harassing the cows was simply a feral dog (with a significant amount of Chow-chow in it's ancestry).

Now, I know there are legitimate programs where large predators (wolves, big cats, etc.) are being reintroduced to some areas. But those are isolated and relatively rare instances.

Later,

BR