Did you see prints near your doe? Normally you would because of the surgical precision, they will often use their teeth to cut the hindquarters. In order to do that, you'll find cat paws with claw marks, as they are extended to push against the ground for leverage to finish the complete sepearation of the animal's hindquarters.

It's funny that you mention about somone popping one of these. You'd think it'd be done and well documented by now. All you see of the "physical evidence" are DEC cover-up theories. Other than that, there is no real proof at all. The people that supposedly shoot a cougar would not just be "let go" by the DEC if they were covering it up. You always hear the "My friend lost a cow, and it was a cougar, so I shot it, then I called the DEC. They came and took the cougar away, and now deny it was a cougar. Yet they did nothing to me to try to cover it up, letting me spew this crazy story without evidence." Right, Okay.

There might always be a captive release or escape around, that is not deniable. But a naturally sustaining population seems unlikely with as much firm proof as bigfoot has given us. Yet there's supposedly many more of the cougars in NY compared to the low suspected numbers of bigfoots.