This is a little snippet of an American cat story. You would never see a story like this in the UK or even Europe. “Pets” were going missing in Indiana. A couple were concerned that their cats would be attacked and killed so they were watching over their backyard. They were prepared to see a bobcat, a medium sized wild cat that is found across the United States. That is what they were told could be attacking local “pets”.
As it happens a large animal did turn up and without any delay the boyfriend of the woman who kept cats shot it. I am not sure he knew what he was shooting at. Shoot first, ask later seems to be the motto.
Anyway the large animal was a leopard. He shot the leopard dead. So we have a leopard roaming around Indiana eating pets including cats who was shot by a human. Quite a neat chain of killing events.
The leopard does not live in the wild in the USA. It was probably bred in a zoo somewhere or imported from Asia perhaps, who knows. Perhaps the leopard was in someone’s private zoo and escaped or was freed. In fact it was reported that the physical state of the leopard (declawed?) indicated that it was a “pet”. Large, semi-domesticated wild cat species are not uncommonly kept as pets in the USA. A sorry tale of cats and killing. As usual, the cats come off worst.
The leopard shouldn’t have been where it was. A person put the leopard into that situation, which was almost bound to end up as it did, with the potential dangers from a leopard and the number of guns in the USA.
I find this really tragic for a lot of reasons mainly that a beautiful animal was shot because it was doing what comes naturally – hunting to stay alive 🙁 As if that wasn’t bad enough as Michael has said this cat was probably de-clawed even so seems a number of domestic cats have been killed in a savage way ultimately because of mans greed and his vile instinct to possess something no one else has…. as I say tragic all around, no happy ending here just sadness and killing……
It is a very sad ending. You never want to shoot a gun into the air unless you are shooting “blanks”. The bullets come down very fast & have injured some & killed other random people & children.
I saw on TV in 2012, but dont know when it actually took place. A man living in New York City-downtown, had raised a Tiger secretly in his apartment, approx. 8 floors up! When he had not been seen or heard from for awhile, I think it was his brother who opened the door slowly, just enough to see the Tiger had made a meal of his brother. Very sad & gruesome but of course the man could not afford to feed a giant Tiger, so the kitty helped himself. I say “kitty” not to make fun of the tragedy, but to point out these are ALWAYS, will a ALWAYS be wild animals. Certain smaller wild cats & wild dogs were raised by man many years ago, that could be mostly tamed. When I was in New Delhi, India, A man regularly walked through the neighborhood with a Sun Bear (w/white “V” on neck) on a leash. He made the bear do tricks like sit up & wave. I was told later, they catch young cubs and knock their teeth out to enslave them. He spoke in Hindi so I didn’t realize he was putting on a show that I had to pay for. I don’t mind giving money to help someone but I don’t want to support in humane acts. He fed it a banana. I would not want to buy the Bear, if I could, because then he would do it to yet another cub. India has so many starving people & babies that everyone just ignores, that they certainly don’t bother with animals. We are talking about a country where some husbands kill their wives if they want, because they own them. The hospitals won’t take you in unless you “know someone-who knows someone”. And believe you don’t want to go where they use needles over & over again with every disease since they’ve been used over & over. That was in 1990’s & hopefully things have changed considerably. Young girls are kidnapped and made prostitutes in hoar houses, which we also have that problem in the USA. Large Cats, Wolves, Elephants, Bears, & Killer Whales must be left alone.They cannot fight man, WE have to stand up for their rights. We have a right for FREEDOM, every living creature does. Lets not play. “God” to decide opossums or certain animals we aren’t going to care about because we don’t think it’s cute! God made them all! If you don’t believe in God, just put yourself in their place. They can’t help that they were born a Bat or a Snake. I don’t bother non-poisonous snakes. Look at the good in each creature. Snakes keep the Rodent population down, which years ago killed many people with the Plague. We even need Sharks to balance the Eco system. Bats, though mostly rabid, eat a lot of Mosquitos, which can infect you with Malaria or West Niles Virus. I used to think that if a person likes animals & appears to treat them well, they are pretty good people. I promise you, it is not true. I have met several cruel ones.
Michael, thank you for posting the story.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. – Mahatma Ghandi
This is quite a rare cat as mentioned so I would expect a relatively small number of breeders. I would like to recommend:
Magic Whiskers – link broken 10th March 2013.
Located in the USA they also breed LaPerm Cats.
Magic Whiskers were kind enough to ask me to write about Highlander cats and allow me to use their photographs for which I thank them.
Northshore Cats
Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. TICA registered.
Thanks Diane. I think the same as you. Humans in general have a poor and abusive attitude towards animals. There is lots of good stuff but far too much bad. The 10 billion dollar international trade in wild life annually is an example of abuse of animals. It is about attitude. Treating animals as equals or treating them as “things” to be exploited by humans. The starting point should be equality as far as I am concerned.
Evidence of the stupidity of a lot people who think they can live with a “pet” tiger.
That poor leopard should have been living wild and free, but instead whether it was someone’s pet or had escaped from a zoo, its death and the death of the other cats should be on the conscience of the person who had imprisoned it in the first place.
You are right Michael the leopard shouldn’t have been where it was, it should be a criminal offence to take a wild cat from the wild and it should be a criminal offence also to breed half wild half domestic cats.
It doesn’t bear thinking about those cats ‘owned’ and controlled when all their basic instincts long for the life of freedom they have a right to.
Exactly – that poor leopard hard a sorry sad life no doubt – about the only decent part was probably the last part where he was roaming free and hunting for himself. Poor thing. So sad. If they were my cats being threatened by a leopard and I didn’t have the time to bring them inside and I had a gun I might try and scare it away – but I suspect that just by shooting in the air or near the sound would startle the leopard and immediatley make my cats aware of it and run inside. I don’t know but I would want to protect my cats.
The worst person in this story is possibly the person who put the leopard there in the first place ‘probably’ – we don’t know how he got there but Michale’s theories are probably right.
I find the whole story so typical of the mess people can create with cats. That is why I wrote about it. It is based on killing.
I think the leopard can be scared off. They are not that large. Minimum weight of about 64 pounds. The one in the video does not look that large. Possibly a female. I don’t believe one has to shoot wild cat species this size. It the same as the cougar and they tend to get shot rather recklessly.
Agreed. It is a sorry tale of killing cats and the situation is created by people, which is what I find sad. The leopard did not need to have been shot. The cats could have been kept in and the leopard trapped and then taken to a decent zoo. Trigger happy shooters at work again.
It would not have been declawed by a Zoo. However, sometimes an animal is given to the Zoo when an ignorant person realizes the animal has too much wild instinct & is much too expensive to feed. Some are resold at that point, to a Big Game Ranch in places like we have here in Texas, which has been on news programs such as 20/20 or 60 Minutes or Dateline or Nightline. I don’t recall which program I saw it on. Someone went undercover with a hidden camera. Hunting dogs cornered a cougar under a vehicle, which had been someone’s pet! Men pay big bucks to shoot it as if it were wild. They pretend they are hunting in Africa. The purpose you ask?…to have it stuffed for a bragging trophy! About 27 years ago in Houston, TX, I went in a small wholesale shop on Harwin Street @ Gessner, where I lived. The lady owner said, shhh, let me show you something, don’t tell anyone! She was all smiles. From a box behind the counter, she picked up a tiny newborn Tiger! I was young, but sure wish I had known to contact authorities. I am haunted by that still & always will be. It is illegal to have large wild cats & purebred wolves w/o a special permit, such as a Zoo has. We have wild cougars in Texas. Large wild cats cannot survive in the wild, if turned lose because it takes the mother 2-3 years to teach their young + that many years of practice for them to learn to hunt & to stay clear of man.
The smaller wild cats such as Bobcat, Lynx, Ocelot, & Serval were found abandoned because something happened to the mother, or they were snuck from the den or field when they were very young to put in a Zoo or bred with the domestic cat for the larger &/or exotic look. They can’t catch a half grown one to breed a cat or it would just think of the little cat as dinner. The Zoos now only buy or are given from an animal from another Zoo or a person that should not have had it, or a certified, licensed Wildlife Rehab/Rescue. You may not legally raise a fawn who’s mother was killed by a car. Wildlife Rehab will raise it because it cannot survive on its own. We need to educate Elementary & Grade School children everywhere. Bless Eveyone-Peace, Diane
Thanks Diane for taking the time to write an informative comment. I agree that it is about education. I have a completely different vision about wild cats to most Americans. It is probably totally impractical. It is that all wild cat species are given the space and habitat to live in the wild and that there are no captive wild cat species. None anywhere. Then we can live in harmony with the wild cats. At the moment it feels like abuse and use.
This could happen only in U.S.A ! There are more pet tigers in U.S.A then in the forests of India .Sad for the animal as keeping “Big Cats” as pets is dangerous to both, the pet owner and also the pet.A leopard unlike a tiger is a “Big Cat” that can easily survive in the midst of human surroundings as they do in the outskirts of Mumbai in the “Sanjay Gandhi National Park”.
Well said Rudolph. Leopards can survive in urban environments as you say – just. Although in India people tend to want to kill them or use them. I just have this feeling of how irresponsible the human is at several levels, as highlighted by this story.