ORIGINAL: country1
We need to face the facts, and one of the facts is that the wildlife officials will not admit or "confirm" that a person was killed by a wild animal unless there is basically an eye witness.
False! Several reports of confirmed kills since 1890 were people that were by themselves when killed and were later confirmed through autopsies.
As I stated earlier,I know of a farmer whohad a healthycalf killed by a mountain lion.The mountain lioneven started to eat the calf, but the wildlife officals denied his claim as theirwas no "proof"thecalf was killed by a mountain lion.
Did your farmer friend get pictures of the cougar eating his calf?? I've seen countless calfs killed by coyotes.
If a person who is attacked by a mountain lionlater diesfrom their injuries, do they classify the deathasa result of a mountian lion attack or as a result of health conditions/complications (heart, stroke, pneumonia, age,etc.)?
From what I read it was still a confirmed Mt. Loin kill. Out of all 22 confirmed human kills in two countries in 119 years there was only 2 instances of this.
How many of the people who just disappear and are never found (parks, rural areas,etc) are killedby a wild animal and eaten?
Hard to explain or define the unknown. Who's to say the just didn't fall of a steep cliff.
When a missing person is found dead: and it is evident that an animal has been eating on the body,how do they classify this death?
This is why we have autopsies. Not hard to tell if it was post-mortum.
So lets admit the likelihood that human deaths from mountain lionsand wolvesare greater than those reported.
I will venture to say they would be less than 1% higher. Probably higher with bears than any other animal.
There are good dog breeders, and their arebad dog breeders. There are good pet owners, and there are bad pet owners. The majority of dog attacks are due to one of the previously mentioned reasons (bad dog breeders and/or bad pet owners).
The classic dog attack arguement!!!! There is some truth to this, but what about ole' Goldy the Golden Retriever who had never even barked at someone before.
If an intruder or attacker is attacked or killed by the family dog, how is this categorized in the records?
Still a confirmed human kill.
How is a death of person from a trained attack dog for protection/security recorded? What about attacks anddeaths by police dogs?
Police dogs and security dogs are considered law enforcement officers not dogs. It is considered a kill by law enforcement.
What is the percentage of human deaths by the familydogvs thetotal of the family dogpopulationcompared to human deaths by mountain lions vs the totalmountain lion population? There are millions of dogs and threeto five thousand mountain lions.
I knew you would ask. This would be hard to come up with because you would have to know how many humans each dog has had contact with vs. how many humans each Mt. Lion has had contact with. The numbers I gave of dog kills was something like 335 kills in the years on 1979-1998. Those are some incredibly high numbers. 22 confirmed kills by Cougars in the U.S. and all of Canada in 119 years is extrememly low. Black Bears have this number beat by over 200% and I've not heard one person say kill off the bears.
A stray dog does not stay around.
Neither does a cougar. They travel a lot more than a stray dog.
Does animal control come out if someone reports seeing a mountain lion? Not likely unless it is in town and refuses to leave.
Why would they? If someone reports seeing a cougar in the country animal control should not get involved. Guess what??? That's where they are supposed to be. We just had one walking the streets of Chicago for a month and he didn't hurt a thing. He was killed because of the scare factor.
My summary: People don't like cougars cause they have been taught that they are viscous animals. Far from the case. It's the same reason people kill every snake they walk up on. It's because they've been taught to fear snakes by generations of uneducated people. There are many things in this world that can kill you. Snakes, spiders, bears, wolves, cougar, lightning, humans, vehicles........
People need to quit killing because of being scared. Start educating yourself and children about these animals. When you hike out in the middle of a National Forest you need to know that there is a risk of being killed by a cougar, wolf, bear, rutting elk, falling off a cliff, etc. There is a lot more out there to fear than a cougar.