[buck460XVR]

Most people with livestock have no love for mountain lions.

Most people with livestock have many threats to their livelihood. Weather, disease, genetics, market prices, just to name a few. There are many risks involved in farming/ranching. Some can be controlled, some can not. Predation on domestic livestock/pets by cougars, wolves, coyotes, foxes and feral dogs is not new. It has been going on for thousands of years. Pasture cattle/horses/sheep in lion/wolf country and odds are sooner or later there will be an attack on one of these animals. Not accepting that is foolish and a sign of not knowing your business. Funny, as much technology as we have here in the United States, we still have not figured out how to deal with it other than to wipe out a whole species or population because of the actions of a few individuals. Go to any other country in the world, including the poor undeveloped third world, and those folks have found alternative ways to deal with predators that work better. Guard dogs or other protective type animals, diversity of animals within the same pasture, knowledge and traits of local predators and frightening devices. Here in the U.S., we put out animals with no knowledge of how to protect themselves, with no other means of protection from predation, and when we have problems, we just want to call the local government, have them take care of the problem and pay us for our troubles.......sounds a lot like welfare, don't it? Many folks have made the comment that predators can make or break any rancher. My view is, that it may be the straw that breaks the back of a unsuccessful rancher on their way out anyway, but statistics such as this show cougars pose very little threat to ranchers and their livelihood.According to figures in Texas in 1990, 86 calves (0.0006% of a total of 13.4 million cattle & calves in Texas), 253 Mohair goats, 302 Mohair kids, 445 sheep (0.02% of a total of 2.0 million sheep & lambs in Texas) and 562 lambs (0.04% of 1.2 million lambs in Texas) were confirmed to have been killed by cougars that year While there always will be instances of nuisance animals that need to be culled(and I have no problem with that) or too many animals one one area that need to be thinned(no problem there either), the illegal shooting of any random animal just because it appears in the horizon and in the minds of some, "may" become a problem at some point in time is just the human desire to kill something for the thrill. Many times we add to the problem even more by inviting prey animals such as deer and elk, and small game close to our homes under the premise that we enjoy watching nature....i.e., food plots and feeders. All we are doing is bringing their natural enemies closer to us also. This is very obvious here in Wisconsin with deer and wolves. But then when the predators take one of our pets or the daughter's 4-H calf, , it's their fault. The reason the feds reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone was because the the neighboring ranchers whinin' about the damage to crops from too many elk. They didn't really want natural predators, they wanted to be payed for crops THEY said were damaged, and they wanted to have the opportunity to shoot or have lease patrons pay for the opportunity to shoot more elk. Now they whine cause there are no elk left. Such is human nature.

This video gives you an idea of the strength of a mountain lion. IMO, pound for pound a cat is a very strong creature - stronger than any human.

WARNING - This video is graphic with a mountain lion killing a mule deer buck.

Wild cats(doesn't matter what breed or size) all kill prey animals to survive. That's what they do and they are good at it. This video is no more graphic than what we can see on Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel. The circle of life is not always pretty. Neither is watching a deer die from a poorly or well placed bullet. Remember, we are predators also.

Cougars at one time were eradicated from Wisconsin because of human ignorance and human greed. Their sightings here are still very rare. They had been an important part of the local ecology for hundreds of thousands of years and had a special place in the culture of the local Native Americans. They are a beautiful and interesting creature and pose very little threat to humans, here in Wisconsin and elsewhere. This is not internet myth or opinion, but fact.