The title summarises in three short sentences the story of this cougar and, frankly it is a sad story and a sad indictment of the failure of humans to protect wildlife. As human population numbers grow rapidly there is only one trend: it’ll get worse.
This particular cougar (aka puma) was used to sunning herself on a sundeck in a Ruskin trailer park, USA. She made it a habit and it cost her her life because once a large wild cat gets used to being around people, the authorities decide that the cat is a danger to the residents.
Of course the people are much more of a danger to the cat! The cat’s death at the hands of people is proof of that.
Conservationists went to the trailer park that the cat had made her resting spot and tranquillised her. They took her away and euthanised her.
They say relocation does not work because the cat comes back. This is because the cat’s home range included the trailer park. Perhaps the trailer park should have been relocated?! I suggest this because the family of this cat was probably at this location before the trailer park. Or she was forced to choose the spot because of human settlement expansion elsewhere.
The cat was 15-months-of-age. Her life was ahead of her. At first she lounged on the deck of Kevyn Helmer’s deck late last year. Last Monday another resident at the park found her sleeping in his yard.
It’s speculated that she was feeding on cat food. It’s almost a replication of the original domestication of the wild cat 10,000 years ago. This cougar was becoming semi-domesticated, almost a community cat. The only problem is that she was big and considered dangerous.
Female cougars aren’t that big though (about the weight of a ten year old boy) and they are shy and can be scared off. Wasn’t there a better more humane way of dealing with this? It’s just so sad. She was innocent, harming no one.
Source: mapleridgenews.com.
Really? How many cougars have you seen in the wild? And since when do “solicitors” qualify as “experts” on native North American cats, or any other type of wildlife, for that matter?
“Incorrect. Female cougars grow larger than males” – sorry on average your statement is very incorrect. I have hard data from the best source to support that. You may have seen large females but in general they are smaller. That is common knowledge in fact.
You have an agenda to peddle – get rid of domestic cats because you hate domestic cats. This means you distort the truth for your own ends. No more comments please.
Yes, but the authorities don’t round up all the pitbulls and other dangerous dogs and euthanise them. Pet dogs are way more dangerous than cougars and this was a female which means she was probably even less dangerous in terms of size and aggression. If she left alone no one would have been hurt.
Couldn’t agree more with you Ron. This cat – albeit a very large cat – became a ‘community cat’ but had no idea how dangerous the community was.
This really pisses me off. The characterization of this cougar as a “community cat” might sound odd, but tame cougars are very much like housecats in character. Yes, they are large, but they have a good affinity for humans. They are generally really sweet cats, and deserve better than this.
This is where i get so mad. Wildlife is supposed to have a natural fear or aversion to man. Like I said I’m sure they thought this was cute and cozy. The people who had to do the dirty deed are not really guilty but the people who fostered this behavior are. If game and fish waited until the cat killed or mauled someone they’d have a lot worse to deal with.