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OT - Cougar attack Sanilac County

1

1130Leo

Member
There was a real life Cougar attack on a horse between Peck and Croswell Michigan on Sunday, the horse was killed by the Cat. It took the authorities until late yesterday to even bother to report it and did not bother to make an effort to alert the public to the current danger. 4 seperate vets have confirmed it was a large cat that killed the horse, the horse was only 5 years old and in very good shape at the time. Just thought it would be helpful to alert any people here on the board that may be venturing out into the fields in the area, Take a GUN with you and keep your eyes open. If they are killing horses, it's only a matter of time before they attack people. Be aware everyone.
 
A friend of mine had a calf killed by a mountain lion in Clay County, Nebraska recently.

His first thought was a coyote, but from the claw marks and the manner in which it was killed, it had to have been a big cat.
 
Well, Randy, on our way back from a wedding in the Keweenaw county of the upper peninsula, on Highway 2 just about 1/2 mile east of M77 or Blaney Park a cougar ran across about 30 yards in front of us on the way home. Neither one of us had ever seen one in the wild before. It was a large powerful cat just cruising along about 3' off the ground going from the north headed south. Powerful neck and shoulders, and pretty dark with some black spots on it. This was June 12, 2015, in the late morning.
 
1130Leo,
thanks, just read about it in the paper. Too close to home. First, we've got to worry about coyotes with our smaller animals and now cougars attacking livestock. They're beautiful animals but I'd be fearin' for my life if I saw one on my property and I'd make every effort to get rid of it.
 
(quoted from post at 05:47:24 06/02/15) Well, Randy, on our way back from a wedding in the Keweenaw county of the upper peninsula, on Highway 2 just about 1/2 mile east of M77 or Blaney Park a cougar ran across about 30 yards in front of us on the way home. Neither one of us had ever seen one in the wild before. It was a large powerful cat just cruising along about 3' off the ground going from the north headed south. Powerful neck and shoulders, and pretty dark with some black spots on it. This was June 12, 2015, in the late morning.
Click to expand...

I saw one on June 3rd 2015
 
Cougar (mountain Lion) kill and eat Deer and Elk as their many food source out west, yes they could definitely kill a horse. Try to get a barn kitty off your shirt sleeve! Than think if that cat weighted 160 Pounds.
 
I just saw what was in the free press and on mlive, simply their posting of the initial item that Sanilac County Sheriff posted on their facebook page.
 
Wanna bet? Local fellow told the NYS DEC boys he had seen a cougar. Was told he was full of beans. The guy said, Well, in that case it must be okay if I shoot it if I see it again. DEC: OH NO you can't do that!!!
 
thanks for posting Leo I grew up in Marlette had lot's of kin folks around peck and for every body's info they will surely attack a horse.
 
A while back, in Nebraska, a LEO and his wife saw a mountain lion and it was a confirmed sighting.

I, of course, protested that it was one confirmed sighting and one UN-confirmed sighting as they were together and only one of them was "official."

A member of the public, even a vet that has been treating animals for decades, is not considered smart enough to be a reliable witness here.

LOL
 
It will of course have to be the tripple S.S.S. if or when i get it in my sights. I do not give a damned about their "protected" status, who or what is protecting me and my own, other than my 1911, or my 30-06 depending upon when and where i see it....
 
>4 seperate vets have confirmed it was a large cat that killed the horse

In other words, nobody saw it, and four veterinarians are speculating.
 
The claim I've heard is that they're denying it to relieve themselves of any liability for damages they might do. Take it for what it's worth.
 
Makes you wonder if the Lapeer County sheriff horse was killed by a cougar and not coyotes like they had originally stated.

I wish I would have saved all the different quotes I have heard from the Michigan DNR on cougars over the years.
The latest seems to be, even if the sighting is confirmed, its not a native cougar, its lost just passing through from Canada.

Similar to the wolverine that was spotted a few years back. And the bear that was hit on I-75 just north of Flint.

Rick
 
There aren't supposed to be any in my area either so I guess my game camera made the picture up.BTW they really have a scream that makes the Livestock Guard Dogs go crazy.
 
we have "unconfirmed" cougar sightings here in illinois for years. dnr poo-pooed all the sightings and denied any cougars are in illinois. several years ago a male cougar was spotted on the north side of chicago in a neighborhood. chicago police fired over 70 rounds to kill it. (kinda scary if you think about it) the cougar was cornered up against a wooden fence when the opened up on it. news helicopter filmed the whole thing. the camera panned around and 2 blocks away was the animal control truck just sitting there. then they said on the news that the cougar was not native to illinois and came from Wisconsin!!!!those darn people from wisconsin, sending there cougars here to terrorize!!!
 
Have a cabin and some acreage up by Hulbert MI (UP) Have seen trail cam pics in the store at Paradise for years. I have heard them scream and possibly seen old tracks. But like you said they do not exist in MI.
 
(quoted from post at 09:13:55 06/02/15) Which paper? Nothing local here has anything that I have seen.
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http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/06/01/horse-attacked-animal-sanilac/28332665/
 
I see a cougar every day, my wife, she is 9 years older than me. Be nice if that particular cougar attacked me more often, in a good way! LOL
 
In Colorado and California, I was around them (or vice verse) camping and hiking. A 125 pounder ate one of my house cats. I do not worry about them, I respect them. Jim
 
For years the Nebraska Game Commission refused to admit there were any mountain lions in Nebraska.

Then one was shot inside the city limits of Omaha, another hit by a car and killed, etc., and the Game Commission finally had to admit they exist. I've seen a couple a few miles from my house, and tracks closer.

Most recent flap was a week or so ago one was found within the city limits of Omaha. Must have been hit be a car or something 'cause it was lying inert with a broken leg. It was not threatening anyone, but police officers shot it 14 times. Speculation was that it should have been tranquilized and taken to a zoo for treatment. But-if it was used to living in the wild I'm not sure that would have been a viable option.
 
A few years ago i was loosing barn cats almost weekly, one night feeding late heard the most god awful scream like sound, Still do not know what it was, could have been one then, my neighbor has claimed to have seen them years ago near us, very few believe him though, should have known he likely was telling the truth.
 
No cougars in MI? Sounds like where I came from in CT. For years the DNR said 'THERE ARE NO MOUNTAIN LIONS IN CT' despite all the sightings. Finally some car hit one in an upscale town, with all the news coverage, and the DNR said something to the effect 'This is a Western mountain lion. See, we told ya'. Seems it doesn't count if the cat doesn't know where it is.
 
I don't know where in the world they get them, but some folks have cougars as "pets"!
When I worked for local Soil & Water Conservation District several years ago, a female Conservation Specialist brought a full grown cougar to a 5th grade conservation day camp in the back of her SUV. Needless to say, we told her to immediately pack it up and get down the road!! I imagine these so-called "pets" are a source of some of the cougars here in the east. Stupid people must get them as kits, and when they become unmanageable, they are either purposefully or "accidently" released into the wild. I am not saying that is true for all eastern cougars, but perhaps some... Heck, just 10 years ago we never saw black bears here in Southside Virginia, now I have a very big guy visiting my bird feeder regularly.
 
That's exactly right. No one saw it. Had a bite on it's leg that caused it to bleed out.

Time to call in the National Guard!
 
True story,we were driving on Lookout Mountain Parkway in Alabama one time and there was somebody standing out by the road talking to a person in a car. The person standing had one on a leash.
 
This was taken at out ranch 20 miles West of Denver about a year ago.
a192786.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 10:56:34 06/02/15) In Colorado and California, I was around them (or vice verse) camping and hiking. A 125 pounder ate one of my house cats. I do not worry about them, I respect them. Jim
Click to expand...

Just wondering how you weighted it.
 
(quoted from post at 19:28:14 06/02/15) True story,we were driving on Lookout Mountain Parkway in Alabama one time and there was somebody standing out by the road talking to a person in a car. The person standing had one on a leash.
Click to expand...

True story: I had an office years ago (1980's) above a commercial photographer's studio. One day they were shooting a Mercury commercial where the cougars sat on top of the car. They had 2 cats that they'd rotate. One of the handlers was walking one of the cats on the front lawn of the building next door that I could see from my upstairs office. The cat was was on a long lead and went behind the bushes near the front door (in background of pic) Few minutes later I watched the mailman walk up to the door. You can imagine what happened next: He freaked out when the cougar came out of the bushes. :shock: He about jumped out of his skin, almost dropped his mailbag and his hands were shaking as he reached for the door. My co-workers and I were laughing our butts off. Next thing I know, there's people peering out the front door of the building looking for the cat. Myself and a few other people went out and talked with the handler and played with "the cat (not really playing, didn't make ANY sudden moves around her LOL). Here's a picture of me and "Goldie":

mvphoto21998.jpg
 
just like the black bear we running around northren Il. a few years ago. DNR said can't be until People starting getting pictures of it.
last heard of in southern Wi. no one knows where it came from or where it went.
 
ya,the old-timers didn't do it for fun. Ancestors had good reasons for wiping them out, as some large cities are finding out now.
 
(quoted from post at 07:41:05 06/02/15) Wanna bet? Local fellow told the NYS DEC boys he had seen a cougar. Was told he was full of beans. The guy said, Well, in that case it must be okay if I shoot it if I see it again. DEC: OH NO you can't do that!!!
Click to expand...

Around here most of us 'folks' subscribe to the 'shoot,shovel & shut up' method of dealing with government-protected varmints 8)
 
(quoted from post at 10:41:05 06/02/15) Wanna bet? Local fellow told the NYS DEC boys he had seen a cougar. Was told he was full of beans. The guy said, Well, in that case it must be okay if I shoot it if I see it again. DEC: OH NO you can't do that!!!
Click to expand...

I saw one near Long Lake, down below Tupper Lk years back Don. My wife and a neighbor both have seen one up here not a mile from our farm. Wife swears she saw a wolverine down in the mountains years back.

DEC used to tell us we were crazy when we heard turkeys down in the mountains and when we started seeing moose. Nothing new there.

The locals up here get all jerky and nervous because Black Bear are moving into the area. Coming from the central Adirondacks I consider bear more of a varmint than a threat. Kinda funny to see the reactions you get up here to bear.
 
and for every reported sighting of any critter, there are
probably a hundred more.
good ol boys that have lived for generations in the area of
my hunting camp, wouldn't report Bigfoot picking thru their
garbage if it meant having to talk to any officialdom people.
 
Update on the horse. Not saying that there aren't cougars in the area, but this injury was low on the leg. (see story). This update makes sense. My horse is constantly injuring himself on his legs. He'll kick himself when he rolls or on a fence or in his stall. I should buy stock in Betadyne. I've seen lots of nasty wounds just from fences or other horses playing "halter tag". Besides, the animal didn't "kill the horse". He was euthanized by the vet. Big difference from original story that said he "bled out". If anything this makes me distrust journalists more than ever. Can't they get their facts straight?

http://www.freep.com/story/news/2015/06/03/horse-killed-sanilac-county/28400345/
 
>If anything this makes me distrust journalists more than ever. Can't they get their facts straight?

Help me out here: How did the reporters "not get their fact straight" when they were quoting local law enforcement verbatim?

Should they maybe have said "The Sanilac County Sheriff's Department sez it wuz a large animal that did it, but those dummies are always wrong."?
 
Cougar are not likely to attack a 1200 pound horse. The biggest they like to tackle is deer. Not saying they could not do it. Risk of injury is just too great. We got cougar problems galore here in Oregon. About 25 years ago hunting with dogs and baiting were outlawed. At that time there were roughly 500 state wide. DFW estimate they are 5,000 now. Probably closer to 8,000. Now there is not enough land to support them. The real dangerous ones are the young Toms unable to find a territory of their own. A very regular occurrence where I live are desperate young Tom's stalking rural school bus stops. Taking something that large is just not something you will see. There are plenty of less dangerous targets for them to select than a 1200 pound horse or Bull or Cow elk. When they get desperate they tend to focus on the least threatening prey they can find. I hope you folks never face the problems we do. 90% of our population is in Eugene and Portland,that covers some single digit fraction of the land area. Out of state environmentalists showed a few commercials of botched hunts and got a ballot measure going. They all went back to LA and SF. The people that voted for it have not had to deal with the problems either. Yet . It is coming though. I am not in favor of them being hunted to extinction or even back to a population of 500. I am in favor of putting the dogs or baiting on any that become a danger. Our kids were told that if an adult was not at the stop stay on it until you come to a stop where there is one. We are always at war with DFW game wardens. We have killed 4 young Tom's in the last 4 years. We all chip in to pay the fines. We are being threatened with a RICO case now if we don't stop killing cougars. Problem is the contract hunters do not come out until there is a human attack or multiple livestock losses. I am not sure about your state but in Oregon there is no liability to the state for any loss from bad wildlife laws that lead to loss of money or life.
 
I saw the update this morning too, kinda ticked off that the initial report by the sheriff's deptartment was so unclear. Agree, killed is not what happened, died of injuries, ok, big difference here. Something fishy about how it was reported initially, horse owner posting a go fund me... now the rest of the story??? From the description of the wound, sounds like a "T" post injury to me.
 
I agree with orygundewd. Why would a cougar attach a 1200 lbs horse unless there was nothing else to eat.

As for the CT cougar. I am not sure how much evidence they have, but the DNA matched the SD Black Hills cougars. The CT cat was thought to be the one that was spotted multiple times across the northern Twincities MN, thru WI, and last seen by Chicago before being hit by a car in CT.

Also, as far as DNR statements. I think a lot of you guys are 'rewording' their statements when state DNR's say 'there is no breeding population' to 'there is no population'. The young male cougars get kicked out of the territory where they were born, and then will travel a LONG ways looking for love.

One last point. If you say '...around here', where the he!! is 'here'?!?!?!
 
(quoted from post at 13:59:54 06/03/15) >If anything this makes me distrust journalists more than ever. Can't they get their facts straight?

Help me out here: How did the reporters "not get their fact straight" when they were quoting local law enforcement verbatim?

Should they maybe have said "The Sanilac County Sheriff's Department sez it wuz a large animal that did it, but those dummies are always wrong."?
Click to expand...

Obviously you've never been quoted by a reporter. I've given them facts right off a prepared release and the print version they come up with will not have half of the facts correct. Never underestimate the ability of a "journalist" to spin, fold and mutilate a report he gets. The less the reported knows about the subject at hand, the younger they are, the more chance for error.
 
Bret, my experience has been that the LEO writes up a report which bears only cursory resemblance to the facts. The press then may or may not accurately report the contents of said report. Sort of like the game of "telephone".

I'm not faulting law enforcement; the cop has to reconcile conflicting stories from witnesses who may be confused, mistaken, lying, drunk or all of the above. As officers of the court, you would expect them to get their facts straight before committing them to print, but they are after all only human.

But in this case, there's no evidence that the LEO was not quoted accurately. JML's beef seems to be that the reporter was insufficiently clairvoyant to know that the sheriff's deputy didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Unfortunately, they don't teach mind-reading in journalism school.
 
My "beef" is a general mistrust of journalists because I've experienced what Bret mentioned. I've talked to reporters and then when I read the article, find that they either misquoted me (by paraphrasing) or changed my words to fit the storyline they're trying to promote. Granted, I've only had this happen 3 times but then, I've only been interviewed 3 times by reporters. :lol:
 
....... 4 seperate vets have confirmed it was a large cat that killed the horse, the horse was only 5 years old and in very good shape at the time......
Click to expand...


So what happened to the 4 vets that confirmed it was a big cat??

The first article I saw from The Freepress said it was probably a coyote, not a cat. It did say the horse bled out and wasn't killed outright though. There was no mention of it being loaded up and taken to the vet where it was put down.

Must have been a slow news day and everybody that got ahold of the story had to blow it up a little bigger.

So where are we now, are there cougars in the thumb of MI or not??

Supposedly, there is one running around here in the NW corner of Ohio, but all the stories of sightings and footprints hasn't even brought a picture of a footprint out.

Seems like nowadays with everybody having a camera on their cell phones, we could at least get a giant cat track to be photographed.

Tim
 
>So what happened to the 4 vets that confirmed it was a big cat??

It turns out the "four vets" were a quartet of old geezers drinking Schlitz down at the American Legion.
 
OK, so the statement in question is this quote: "The horse was bitten on a lower part of a rear leg, apparently causing it to bleed out, sheriff's office Sgt. D----- S----- said." [ <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/06/01/horse-attacked-animal-sanilac/28332665/">http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/06/01/horse-attacked-animal-sanilac/28332665/</a> ] It turns out this was a Double Whopper: Not only did the horse not bleed to death, but there was no evidence to suggest it had been attacked by another animal. This is not a case of being a little bit off. So either the reporter fabricated the entire quote, or else it's a reasonably accurate quote. I'd say it's the latter.

It seems to me you're really mad at yourself for your own gullibility. In hindsight, the idea that a cougar is going to attack an adult horse seems preposterous. (Particularly in the Michigan thumb where small game is plentiful and cougars are not.) Yet almost everyone here swallowed this ridiculous story hook, line and sinker. Why? Because y'all DESPERATELY WANTED IT TO BE TRUE.
 
(quoted from post at 12:32:08 06/04/15) Bret, my experience has been that the LEO writes up a report which bears only cursory resemblance to the facts. The press then may or may not accurately report the contents of said report. Sort of like the game of "telephone".

I'm not faulting law enforcement; the cop has to reconcile conflicting stories from witnesses who may be confused, mistaken, lying, drunk or all of the above. As officers of the court, you would expect them to get their facts straight before committing them to print, but they are after all only human.

But in this case, there's no evidence that the LEO was not quoted accurately. JML's beef seems to be that the reporter was insufficiently clairvoyant to know that the sheriff's deputy didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Unfortunately, they don't teach mind-reading in journalism school.
Click to expand...

Mark, I don't know how every other agency does it, but the way the ones I do know of do it it thus- Complainant A states this- you write down exactly what the guy said. Complainant B says this- you write down what he said. Then comes the officers observations- evidence at scene indicates- and you fill in the blank with exactly what you observe. That's how it's done in professional police agencies.

The fact in this case is that the paper reported what it did, but we don't have any idea if it's even close to what was actually said. Find the guy that said it, some film of him saying, some reliable witnesses and then you have something. Until then, I don't trust reporters to get more than half the story right.
 
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