I was watching this story this evening on ABC News Tonight…during the story wrap up report Matt Gutman explains (paraphrasing a little) “authorities say the have a permit to go back and capture it but they tell us this is a wild nocturnal animal and finding it is not going to be easy.” I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard…
“Permit to go back and capture it” - in MT, ID, WY, CO, TX, NM, AZ…it wouldn’t have been an issue because a resident would have dispatched it once it was seen after taking out the first dog.
“Wild and nocturnal” - Every hear of NOGs? They’ve got all kinds of NV and thermal optics available for rifles now.
“Finding it is not going to be easy” - I know of a couple mountain men and some dogs and several hunters that could track that cat down for you in no time.
There’s a reason they don’t have this sort of issue outside “the sunshine” State, because they let their citizens exercise their common sense. Only in CA.
Not only in CA. In the Sunshine State(no quotes, FL), a guy I know discovered an 8 foor gator in the lake adjacent to his backyard. Having 3 young kids, he started making calls to proper authorities to remove the animal. After some weeks passed with no action, he hooked the gator himself, and pulled it out of the lake and called animal control. For doing that he was promptly reported and arrested.
With a radio collared cat the 3-S rule is probably not working. That cat looked pretty scruffy and starved, and sitting on the porch against the window and not moving off in response to the dogs… something wrong there.
Cat should be trapped, treated and relocated if he’s ill, or if he’s really not bothered by being around people… probably a candidate to be put down as not safe to rerelease. In Missouri, we can do the deed ourselves if they’re attacking livestock (or people) and we catch them at it. Pretty sure we lost some goats to one a couple years ago… 3 40 lb kids disappeared over a 5’ fence without a trace. Takes a big predator to clear a 5’ fence carrying 40 lbs in its mouth, and a bobcat probably can’t.
What’s worrisome is the news treating it with the “just like a big housecat” spin…
Nooo… that thing could EAT YOUR CHILDREN! WHAT are you telling people!?! You’re going to get some child mauled or killed!!!
