Great woman. Love her for her actions. She was smart. She combined intelligence with a healthy dose of courage. There was a risk to her as the bobcat was agitated and defensively aggressive as expected. But she used the shield to protect herself and after the cat was released, it calmed down and appeared to have appreciated the woman’s behavior while their fear subsided.
She clearly knew what she was doing which indicates that she’d done this sort of thing before. Trapping wild animals like this is horrendously cruel. They starve to death. Trappers do this I guess so they can make around $300 from the pelt (price correct at 2023). Yes, I know it is legal to hunt bobcats and it happens a lot but I hate it. If I was in charge, I’d ban the whole miserable, business, lock stock and barrel and to hell with the loss of livelihoods. They could find another way to make a living.
RELATED: California Bans Trapping of Bobcats
CITES lists the bobcat in Appendix II meaning it is not threatened with extinction in the wild and the IUCN Red List classifies it as Least Concern. Together it means that the bobcat can be trapped, shot and killed for the skin on its back.
The pelts of leopards and cheetahs and jaguars are banned which increased the pressure on the bobcat pelt trade.
And a large number of killed for their fur. Here is some historical information on that topic.
From the 1970-71 season the bobcat ‘harvest’ increased from 91 cats to 1,107 in 1976. And pelt prices increased from $4 to $46 over the same time.
By 1979 the price had increased further to an average of $125 with some reaching $250.
The increased prices lead to more trapping and killing.
Bobcat trapping varies a lot from state to state. In Massachusetts fewer than 40 were killed (1979-1986) while in New Hampshire 10,000 were killed.
Texas held the record at the time (still does?) for the number of bobcats harvested at 17,686 for one year: 1985-6.
Location
We are not told where this bobcat was trapped and released. It looks like Canada. Bobcats are present in southern parts of Canada such as British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Deep snow at 13-15 centimetres limits their movements.
