Cougar killed in my area this morning: warning sign of some sort?

I just found this in the local paper:

Kennewick A state Department of Fish and Wildlife officer shot and killed a cougar at a home in downtown Kennewick this morning after the cougar had spent about nine hours in the area. The cougar was about 25 feet up in a tree in the backyard of the home in the 3200 block of West Third Place in Kennewick. Read more here: www.tri-cityherald.com...=omni_popular#storylink=cpy

I have heard that right before a "natural" disaster, animals will do strange things... I saw a fox in this area a couple of weeks ago also, and we have NEVER had them here.... Something up maybe?

Link:

www.tri-cityherald.com...=omni_popular


It really is a shame they shot and killed it, but being out of place in the desert, where would they re-locate it to? This kitty must have walked for miles to get here

Hey I grew up in Richland! But seriously -- I don't think this is out of the ordinary. Sometimes they just go places they're not supposed to go -- he may have been on the hunt and his nose led him the wrong way -- he was probably a young cat and didn't know the hazards of going into town?

IMO...

Sounds like animals being forced from their natural habitats by humans and their constant expansion. It was probably just hungry and looking for food and didn't know how to get back to a safer place, that's what usually happens to animals.

To your point, if there were a natural catastrophe coming, you'd see a hell of a lot more animals freaking out than just a single cougar.

~Namaste

YEs animals do have some sort of sixth sense to the earth. I think that its a connection that we all share a spiritual and conscious connection between all living things. UNfortunate they had to shoot the cougar, to many times we go to the gun for the easy way to solve problems.

Actually, it does happen from time to time. The real tragedy here is that they didn't use a tranquilizer gun to sedate the cougar so it could be relocated out into the wild.

So much easier to kill it and then brag about it later.

Seriously shot and killed!!!!!???????? They couldn't relocate?????? Sad

And...the 1 st poster may be right. Sometimes bears, lions and......lol get where they shouldn't...
Unless more high strangeness ....then can not determin...to early

Originally posted by Suranwrap200
UNfortunate they had to shoot the cougar, to many times we go to the gun for the easy way to solve problems.

I was waiting for a response like this, I love animals, I have pets...But a COUGAR is the Apex predator in that area, meaning if you are unarmed, It's higher on the food chain than you are. If a Cougar was running loose in my neighborhood, If animal control can get there in a timely manner, great! If not, I'd rather err on the side of caution and put the animal down than risk injury to human life. It's not a rabid lab we're talking about here, if that cougar decides he doesn't want to be caught, guess what? You won't catch him, it's an extraordinarily fast, agile and powerful animal, give them the respect that they're due.

How would you propose to solve the problem?

Just a sick animal. Happens all the time. We don't see it that often because they mostly stay in the woods, sometimes they venture into populated area's.
About 10 years ago I encounted a rabid ground hog. The whole thing was weird. It tried to attact my van. Long story short, some guy had been tracking him and scared him away from my vehicle and caught him in a net, sprayed him and that was the end of it. It happens.
Now if there's like 10 or more animals coming at you at the same time like that, I would def. be concerned.
s

Warning sign that the Chupacabra ran out of goats and cows?

I lived in Sacramento and there was the occasional report of a cougar spotted in the riparian recreational areas. I live in Oregon now, and there is a growing cougar population here. I imagine they are thriving there as well.

It's a warning to be careful while jogging along the river.

I'm East of you, had some odd wildlife activity, not rare per say but odd. Year back in a neighborhood in Wash. State a bear cub was killed near a school due to fears he would attack/bring his mother near the children or even return. More years prior living in Florida alligators in my backyard and in parks were all too common. Now I hear there's all kinds of introduced and escaped wildlife all over to the point of an epidemic.

Cougars, I used to live in a more rural area, sometimes at night it sounded like(odd activity on the roof and in trees?) they would come down from the mountains and be closely, especially the way the dogs reacted. Not even to mention the Timber wolves who scared the dogs and us during dusk and night.

Fast foward, I was about 8 feet from a older (maybe a newly yearling)moose calf a while ago. Not the first time for me anyway but wow that was shocking because I wasn't in a car or inside. I just stepped out of my door, stopped and thought wait is that a ...horse? No was not! I squinted to see a 600 to 800 pound/appearing over 5 ft, young wild animal looking at me without fear. Shocking, scary, curious and magnificent at the same time. He made his way into the city too not just outside rural areas. Coyotes commonly come close. Now the moose population apparently is coming down more often from the mountains possibly due to the scent of apples/livestock feed and other. Or maybe something else...

forget the cougar, people are way more crazy and unpredictable and carry fire arms and machetes!!!!

two

reply to post by EyesWideShut


Sooo a tranq gun is just far to slower then a bullet? The guy that killed it worked for forestry service...didn't he?

They could have kept an eye on the cougar until a tranq gun got there...if it looked like the cougar was going to eat dick and Jane...then they could kill it.

If I were a cougar and got lost in disturbia....I would pray they wouldn't kill me...but have mercy and point me in the right direction. If something gets in our way...mow it down or kill it. So 15 th Century

It's standard protocol in my city, that if a cougar enters city limits it's a dead cat. No tranquelizers, nets, etc...nothing. I recall a few years back, one wandered in and was shot dead.

There was no natural disaster or anything afterwards, just a hungry and disoriented cat.

I don't like it but it's just a safety procaution. Cougars are very elusive animals, and very dangerous.

I guess it's just the value of human life over that of an animal.

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
Actually, it does happen from time to time. The real tragedy here is that they didn't use a tranquilizer gun to sedate the cougar so it could be relocated out into the wild.

So much easier to kill it and then brag about it later.

Exactly. Once spotted, all they had to do was call in to the nearest animal refuge or Zoo to get a shooter with tranquilizer rounds. What makes someone think that killing a supreme animal like this is acceptable? If it was attacking someone, different story, but apparently here, there was ample time to do this right.

Did you give her the ol' in and out real savage before she was killed? Oh. Your talking about an animal nvm.

Originally posted by tracehd1
reply to post by EyesWideShut

 

Sooo a tranq gun is just far to slower then a bullet? The guy that killed it worked for forestry service...didn't he?

They could have kept an eye on the cougar until a tranq gun got there...if it looked like the cougar was going to eat dick and Jane...then they could kill it.

If I were a cougar and got lost in disturbia....I would pray they wouldn't kill me...but have mercy and point me in the right direction. If something gets in our way...mow it down or kill it. So 15 th Century

I'll answer your question in two parts because I'm not sure if you mean "Projectile Speed" or "Time it takes to stop the threat"

A tranq dart moves roughly 300 feet per second or 200 miles per hour or a little more than 1/3 the speed of sound

A 55gr .223 round out of a patrol carbine moves a little over 2900 feet per second or 1980 miles per hour close to 4 times the speed of sound.

In a nutshell the bullet moves at about 10x's the speed of the dart.

When the tranq dart hit's the cougar he/she will go "WTF is that!?!" jump out of the tree and it will need to be tracked until it's sedated (Roughly 15-20) minutes. That is if the Animal Control officer hits it in a large muscle group and correctly estimates the weight of the cougar to properly gauge the amount of sedative needed.

When the bullet hits the cougar (provided it's a cns shot for an ethical kill) The cougar will literally be dead before he/she heard the gunshot because the bullet moves at 4x's the speed of sound.

dart = 15-20 minutes where the cougar remains a threat
bullet = DRT (Dead Right There)

If there was a time to shoot it, it would be while it's up in the tree. If "while they're keeping an eye on it" it decides it wants to leave, you now have a man with a rifle trying to shoot a small target that can run 45mph in a residential neighborhood.

That's bad juju...

I can see you want to identify with the cougar (they're cool animals, I like them too), but a cougar doesn't pray nor does it hope. It operates off of instinct, simple reasoning (can I eat this or not, can this eat me or not)

I promise you if you were walking in the woods and a cougar came upon you, it most certainly wouldn't "point you in the right direction" or have mercy on you, It would try to eat you.

Personification of wild animals can be a very dangerous thing, it can be fatal when it's done with apex predators.

reply to post by EyesWideShut


Hey...thanks for the info. I was being sarcastic tranq -v- gun....I know a bullet is faster....

However....I didn't think about tracking. It seems I've seen successful bear and cougar relocation from problem area's?

Originally posted by EyesWideShut

Originally posted by tracehd1
reply to post by EyesWideShut

 

Sooo a tranq gun is just far to slower then a bullet? The guy that killed it worked for forestry service...didn't he?

They could have kept an eye on the cougar until a tranq gun got there...if it looked like the cougar was going to eat dick and Jane...then they could kill it.

If I were a cougar and got lost in disturbia....I would pray they wouldn't kill me...but have mercy and point me in the right direction. If something gets in our way...mow it down or kill it. So 15 th Century

I'll answer your question in two parts because I'm not sure if you mean "Projectile Speed" or "Time it takes to stop the threat"

A tranq dart moves roughly 300 feet per second or 200 miles per hour or a little more than 1/3 the speed of sound

A 55gr .223 round out of a patrol carbine moves a little over 2900 feet per second or 1980 miles per hour close to 4 times the speed of sound.

In a nutshell the bullet moves at about 10x's the speed of the dart.

When the tranq dart hit's the cougar he/she will go "WTF is that!?!" jump out of the tree and it will need to be tracked until it's sedated (Roughly 15-20) minutes. That is if the Animal Control officer hits it in a large muscle group and correctly estimates the weight of the cougar to properly gauge the amount of sedative needed.

When the bullet hits the cougar (provided it's a cns shot for an ethical kill) The cougar will literally be dead before he/she heard the gunshot because the bullet moves at 4x's the speed of sound.

dart = 15-20 minutes where the cougar remains a threat
bullet = DRT (Dead Right There)

If there was a time to shoot it, it would be while it's up in the tree. If "while they're keeping an eye on it" it decides it wants to leave, you now have a man with a rifle trying to shoot a small target that can run 45mph in a residential neighborhood.

That's bad juju...

I can see you want to identify with the cougar (they're cool animals, I like them too), but a cougar doesn't pray nor does it hope. It operates off of instinct, simple reasoning (can I eat this or not, can this eat me or not)

I promise you if you were walking in the woods and a cougar came upon you, it most certainly wouldn't "point you in the right direction" or have mercy on you, It would try to eat you.

Personification of wild animals can be a very dangerous thing, it can be fatal when it's done with apex predators.

So what is the ratio of people killed by cougars
to those that are killed by people on the phone while driving in the United States?

Can we shoot the phones from people hands as they drive endangering school children,
or is that an acceptable loss during commerce?

Or would it be ok as long as someone pays for cougar insurance?

Usually a sigh that some local pets are about to start going MIA...

Might want to contact your local animal control if you didn't already just to play it on the safe side.