Mountain lion wipes out farm's petting zoo (AZ)

Arizona Daily Star ^ | July 5, 2009 | Tim Steller

[Inyo-Mono]

Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the all-natural, community-supported farm, faced a tough choice: Try to kill the wild cat or put their animals and possibly their farm's visitors — including many children — at some risk.

"We were really conflicted," Stewart Loew said.

Wow! What a twisted mindset; children could be killed but we don't won't to hurt a dangerous wild animal.

[mylife]

Nice tagline!

[Mogollon]

Yep. A mountain lion wiped out a Javalina herd that used to come onto my brothers land in SE Arizona this past year.

[Inyo-Mono]

Really nice Sharps! Do you shoot black powder cartridges?

[jazusamo]

Twisted is right, that decision is a no-brainer for sane folks.

[mylife]

I had a rule in Az when hiking. Kids will stay to the middle of the pack.

Under no circumstances will kids or those slight of build trail the line

[familyop]

"Many human factors could have contributed to the lion's settling in at the farm, too. Urbanization, even in semi-rural areas like the river valley of Santa Cruz County, drives some animals out of their habitat."

[*Sob!* *Boohoo!*] I've lived in two large areas, where there were over 60,000 people living over 100 years ago (each area) but very few people now.

* The mountain lion, bear and other predator populations are growing in central and northern Colorado, because people are not hunting them much. And the weather has been getting wetter for several years.

* Mountain lions and bears hunt and kill whatever presents itself and appears to be easily killed. Mountain lions are more capable of making quick kills than bears. Mountain lions are not often seen, while they are stalking prey. That's because mountain lions don't like to be seen while stalking prey. ;-) They tend to do their hunting, when it's dark outside.

* Mountain lions like to do most of their killing after dark. So do bears (mostly sundown to midnight or so). Black bears look for targets of easy opportunity--mostly plant matter. But they will kill any easy prey that they see, and will try kill just about anything, when they're hungry enough.

* Most people on the Range avoid going outside their homes after dark. ...the most indoor people that I've ever seen. Very few people up here go for walks. They drive...a lot, eat a lot, watch a lot of television and speak of their spiritual affiliations with animals. Obviously, methamphetamine is not an effective weight loss remedy. ;-)

* Mention to one of the freaks that you have much American Indian ancestry, and they will invariably tell you that they are Indians. [Fritz und Heidi Indians, maybe.]

* Mountain lions and bears on your properties up here are most often only passing through. They learned to avoid people a long time ago. That could change, if animal-worshiping weirdos continue to overpopulate. Animal-worshiping weirdos most often express desires for animals to eat people, because they like to antagonize others. Many of them are on drugs, very sedentary and inclined toward driving.

We couldn't kill all of any species of predators, if we tried. They are nocturnal/semi-nocturnal and very good at hiding. Mountain lions and bears are not buffalo. [I refuse to speak in trendy, city-girl terms like "bison" and "pronghorn."]

[mylife]

we support them 100 percent," Loew said. "But we don't support them doing it 30 miles from the border."

Lowe is a Nimby "Not in My Back Yard"

[familyop]

That is one sweet Sharps rifle. I’m considering getting one of the reproductions in .45. ...and a new eyeglass prescription, of course. ;-)

[jazusamo]

Thanks for a very nice post. Both humorous and serious but the truth is more humorous than fiction in many cases.

[calex59]

What caliber? 50-110?

[Snurple]

50-90

[Snurple]

Yep

[familyop]

"I'm still just shaking my head over this. I read the article source to my daughter a moment ago. She's our primary herdsman here, and the whole notion of doing anything other than shooting predators like this on sight is just stupid beyond belief. :-)"

Agreed. We shoot stray dogs and coyotes that are anywhere near the herd. But the predator-worshiping kooks throw fits, if we kill one of their kindred cougar or bear spirits. ;-)

[Snurple]

But the predator-worshiping kooks throw fits

Ive read many stories about bicyclists and joggers getting attacked in Califorina by ML's. I don't believe Ive ever read even one story where they had a gun to defend themselves....seems silly to me.

[calex59]

50-90 is still potent. I have never seen an original 50-110. I bet the 50-90 sets you back a bit. I shoot a muzzle loader, .50 Cal, and I load it with 100 grns ffg. Recoils a mite but drops a deer quick enough. I use a 450 grn conical that my brother designed and we had molds made from some guy in Oregon of all places. Works great. Took many deer in CA(during the regular season) and several in CO. My brother dropped a big 4 pointer in Nevada also.

I would love to have a sharps!

[familyop]

You’re welcome, and thanks for the thanks. I’m not a bear or cougar hunter, yet, and I haven’t had to shoot any them...yet. I’ve only seen one cougar (mountain lion) near sunset and two in the headlights, so far.

...saw quite a few bears, though, up close—a couple of them well over 400 pounds in the fall (brown-colored black bears—neighbor’s dog pecking at them provided the opportunity to judge their sizes). My concern for now is to be prepared to defend against any bad ones that show up. ...no really bad/hungry ones so far (~ 10 years), but their populations are increasing.

Numbers of incidents are increasing, too (news stories more frequent), but the wildlife folks here are refusing or neglecting to tally the numbers of attacks. ...haven’t found those numbers anywhere.

I’m against being wasteful or unnecessarily cruel to any animals, but that’s about it. People are more important, IMO.

[jazusamo]

I have never hunted bear or cougars either though I’ve hunted deer and elk for close to fifty years. In those years I’ve seen a few bears, never have seen a cougar in the wild but I know they’ve seen me because all the hunting I’ve done has been in prime cougar areas.

Strangely, where I was raised and lived over forty years in So CA in populated areas they are having cougars come into residential areas for easy meals of peoples pets. Many living there now think it’s wonderful that predator numbers are increasing, of course the people who’ve lost pets feel differently about it.

Like you say, incidents of man/predator encounters are increasing, I hope it doesn’t take losing another person for CA Fish and Game to start taking more lethal action in the areas this is occurring in. People are more important than animals!

[familyop]

"Ive read many stories about bicyclists and joggers getting attacked in Califorina by ML's. I don't believe Ive ever read even one story where they had a gun to defend themselves....seems silly to me."

Agreed. There's another consideration for that, though. Very few people who carry firearms don't spend enough time on ranges these days, IMO--even police. In order to defend against a mountain lion (close, dark, fast--like human bad boys, only darker and faster), training with a pistol/revolver the old fashioned way would be required: thousands of rounds with drawing and pointing instead of aiming.

Single action, because of its mechanical nature, requires such extensive practice, so that's what we're going with (including the extra single action safety precautions: nothing in front of the hammer, 'till it's out and moving forward, etc.). ...the heavy duty, larger-framed single action and handloading, of course (see Linebaugh, one of our gurus). It's light enough for a fast pull, and there's a little less recoil for the girls with cast bullets up to 300 gr. (.45 Colt, of course).

[Snurple]

This is a replica 1851 .44 Cal Sheriffs Model that's a lot of fun to plink with