"Money (not) well spent?"

[67Dart273]

In the last year? I've seen quite a few TV bits pertaining to avoiding Cougar attacks, evidently sponsored by some outfit called

http://westernwildlife.org/

Now who in hell knows where THEIR funding comes from? But one night it occured to me, that when you add up all the camping accidents, things like snake bites, attacks by just about any animal you can think of, falls, injury or death due to unpreparedness and hypothermia, and on and on and ON, It occurred to me that "Cougar attacks" might not be exactly at the "top of the list."

so while I don't intend to diminish the people who HAVE suffered injury or death from a Cougar, seems to me we might be worrying about the "sky falling" when we should be worrying about more pressing matters.....................


According to this website, in the entire U.S. and Canada combined

http://www.cougarinfo.org/attacks3.htm

in 2010, there were 2 confirmed Cougar attacks, 2 unconfirmed, and one pet attack

IN 2009 there were 7 injury attacks

In '08 there were 6 injuries, 1 death

According to Wiki............there have been "more than" 20 deaths in the U.S. and Canada from 1890!!! to 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America

 

[RustyRatRod]

I bet most of those were somehow provoked. We ARE encroaching on THEIR territory more and more everyday. I never knew we had black panthers in Georgia, but I had a friend hit one, one night. It killed it, but it did some damage to his truck. He came by the house right after it happened, as it was only right down the road. I couldn't believe it. It was a full grown black panther. He even called the DNR out here and they verified it. They also took it with um when they left. Now what would they want with a big dead black cat?

 

[65BCODA]

RustyRat....They study the DNA characteristics to determine the amount of inbreeding due to lack of habitat, age, weight and many other factors.
Its a big deal down here in FL. If your friend moved it from the scene here he would have been in a butt load of trouble.

 

[RustyRatRod]

They actually told him that. He didn't know.....and he's a very well known hunter in the area, plus he knew both DNR agents, so that helped. I got in similar trouble over a snake once. <insert eye roll>

 

[TrailBeast]

I had a customer that just moved here ask about cats when they go hiking and jogging.
I told them to not act like a cat lure when they go out, to carry when they do go out hiking, and not to jog through the country side because cats like to chase thier prey down.

A black panther would have made me go WTF?