Letter: Shooter of mountain lion shouldn’t face charges
February 15, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Worthington Daily Globe
I read with awe and dismay the article about the individual that is being charged by Jackson County’s attorney for shooting a mountain lion by his place last fall.
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I had to shake my head in wonder after reading this article. The same old worn out excuses about “protecting children” would have been the justification for killing Bambi and/or the Easter Bunny, too.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Wow! If a six foot tall talking rabbit shows up on my yard, I’m hidding the kids, calling the cops and grabbing my gun. So yes protecting the kids would be the excuse for shooting the Easter Bunny as well.
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So if I happen to be walking down a gravel road past a pasture and someone’s cattle coming running towards the fence and I feel threatened I can shoot them? I think not! This cat was hiding because it was scared and these guys should be charged as poachers, take their guns and the truck used to transport the animal. I have no sympathy for them as they showed no sympathy for the cat that did nothing to provoke them in to killing him.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Wade, if you truly feel threatened by all means shoot the cattle. No animal is ever worth the loss of a human life.
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Yes but Bjack can you shoot the cattle just because you saw it and you decided it could be dangerous without it doing anything threatening to you? That’s what these guys did, they shot and killed an animal that they had trapped first, then chased out toward the brave soul with a gun, who shot it.
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So what if a few days before the shooting of this cat, cattle on my yard are scared into a fence and one dies. A neighbor also has a cow that dies because it’s smashed into a fence. Who would have thought, a lion was in the neighborhood? No way to prove the lion caused it. Keep in mind these are ‘west river cattle’ and grew up with coyotes and dogs…
So to the people who act like the family tabby cat was shot, when you send your kids to schools that are paid for by these livestock enterprises, think again!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Wow, paying property taxes to the school district…just like every other real property owner…gives one the “right” to break the law? I’ll keep that in mind the next time I get pulled over for speeding…
The problem with the shooting is this, the men had time to make decisions. They had time to alert the authorities. I would be sympathetic to them if life or property was in imminent danger and they had to make a split second decision, but that wasn’t the case here. Sure you could argue they were protecting themselves, but they could have protected themselves the proper way by alerting the authorities of the cougar and had them remove it. Both would have accomplished the same thing, only the latter way would have been legal. These guys may not be poachers in the classical “hunting down endangered animals for the thrill” sense, but they still broke the law and there needs to be a penalty for that to discourage the real poachers who have less noble intent when they kill.
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So we can now try to justify the killing of a cougar in Minnesota hiding in a culvert by using a cougar in west Texas attacking a child?
So again I will take this conversation back to legalities ” Texas is acknowledged to have healthy resident populations of cougars in the extreme southern and western portions of the state. This is despite the fact that the species receives no legal protection. In Texas, cougars may be hunted or trapped at any time using any legal method.”
And as per the Minnesota DNR ” ? Can I shoot a problem animal? No. Cougars are protected by state law. Only public safety officials are authorized to kill a cougar that proves to be an imminent threat to humans.
If there is a proven public safety concern, DNR or other licensed peace officers can take a cougar to protect public safety. State law does not allow killing a cougar to protect livestock or pets.”
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The lesson is ya Shoot, Shovel, and SHUT UP! Problem solved.
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That’s not exactly a “moral” lesson. They were right to report it. Now they can sleep at night and their karma won’t be all screwed up.
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Gosh, I didn’t realize I was giving any kind of morality lesson. I was just saying that sometimes country folks who are closest to the problem know more about it than DNR executives sitting in the Twin Cities do about the problem.
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” I was just saying that sometimes country folks who are closest to the problem know more about it than DNR executives sitting in the Twin Cities do about the problem.” and sometimes, as in this case, the “country folks” ARE the problem. There are at least three Conservation Officers living within minutes of this area. It sounded to me when I read the article, that they had plenty of time to call one of them, beings they had it trapped in a culvert anyway.
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Have you ever tried to contact one of those Conservation Officers ellamay? I have. Just couldn’t seem to find one of them no matter what I tried. After awhile I contacted the Nobles County LEC and eventually talked with a conservation officer. As far as a cougar being trapped in a culvert how do you think they were doing that? I wouldn’t want to be on either end of that culvert.
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