well bro, no offense taken, My spell check needs to ..........

NEVER MIND[:-]

It's sorta like that old deal where in every medical school graduating class, there'salways adoctor who finishes dead last.

Not exactly the one you want to havecut you open, and play a game of Operation.

I lived in Montana about 10 yrs ago while a fly fishing guide, we had a stable of horses that we used for ride in trips to some high mountain lakes.
One morning we found blood at the water trough and a trail heading into the pasture to a dying horse. It was lying on it's side bleeding to death from some deep gashes on it's neck top and underside as well as a bad one on the underside of it's left back leg that hit a large blood vessel.
He had just enough strength to get up and into a trailer and off to the local vet.
He got the bleeding stopped and I don't remember exactly how many sticthes but I seem to remember something like 600 head to toe.
Vet said that most likely it was a Mt. Lion attack, what else could it be?.........well a walk back into the pasture to find evidence of a cat showed our "Mt. Lion" was actually a length of 3 strand barbed wire fence that apparently the horse got into in a panic during a thunderstorm the previous night.
This "Cat" attack happened in areas with actual real life Mt. Lions and was determined to be a cat attack by a Montana veterinarian........and it was nothing more than a sharp fence and struggling horse. (A Mt. Lion sure would have been the sexier of the 2 though )
This isn't 2nd hand experience.........I cared for the that horse's wounds for weeks after the fence attack.

We have pages uponPAGES of actual hunters/ sportsmen on this very site who can't tell the difference between a Bobcat and a Mt. Lion from a clear trail cam picture that they can study for as long as their hearts desire.......yet we are to believe 2nd and 3rd hand "Eye Witness" testimony from people who wouldn't know a Mt. Lion if it had them by the throat?

You guys are telling me that someone has "Confirmed" that a Mt. Lion in the Williamsport area is attacking horses and killing shepard pups and this isn't BIG TIME news?
You have an Alligator attack in Florida where they are a dime a dozen making national news but a Mt. Lion in PA attacking anything that moves wouldn't even make the local newspaper?

Until someone can show actual first hand DNA type evidence or a clear picture of a Mt. Lion on a horses back next to the Rt220 highway sign on a first hand basis I'm breaking out the tin foil hat yet again.

Phade........where are you going with this?A typo, a miss spelled word?

Let the thread run the way the poster started it, I have offered some solid information, you just want to hear your self talk about WHAT????

Cougardaville

Ok Matt, having you said that.....sorry to hear about your horse, glad you made it through.Yes, barbed wire does cause serious injury to horses.

LOL. I'm saying there's people involved in this "story" who are supposed to be expert-like, yet as Matt pointed above...many miss points they should well know. "Due" and "dew" are simply the tip of the iceberg.

There's so many holes in this deal, the ship sunk before it even got on the water.

Why don't you re-read my posts?....I've offered solid information too. Black bear stat and info to consider, horse actions, hog damage...It seems like you've got a case of the woolies that most chasers get (aliens, yeti, loch ness, etc.) where they only see things one sided, and have blinders (pun intended) to the other options.

Your "solid" info consists of reports from the field that haven't even made the press.

I believe that, a cougar is a possibility here, but so are many other animals based on the info that's been presented.

Tell that to the people with the injured horses. While your at it call the peoplewho have seen the cats liars. Then after that, will you issue a spelling test??

Man, I'm sensing it's not me going off on a tangent here...I believe it may be you. You seem to like to be confrontational when people aren't on your side of the fence. You even got testy with the mod.

The deal with those people with the horses...they've got injured horses. They are prone to believe something bad HAD to happen, akin to a family death being investigated. It's a human part of life. People with loss ALWAYS think the worst scenario. It had to be a Mtn. Lion...

Like I said above, with the LITTLE evidence here, reasonal expectations are that it could have been a number of animals.Just look at Matt's deal with the horse. It doesn't hurt to open your eyes, we're mostly beingopen here to it possibly being a cougar, yet you are the one who is insisting thats the only thingit could be...

And the liar part...I'd say I'd call half liars, and half poor fools. Some are merely putting that out knowing they didn't see a cougar...and others genuinely believe they saw a couger, yet were mistaken. People are foold every day by magicians. The eyes are slow compared to the hands. It's a real possibility those people thought they saw a couger, but were mistaken. A minor % may have seen the real deal, I'm open to that. However, I havent met one that can convince me with any good proof.

And the final answer to your question...No I would not issue a spelling test. However, I would second guess a biologist, expert, or amatuer wanna-be who doesn't know a biological, technical term that is deeply important to the basic make-up of the subject under discussion. Enough of that...

If we all can just agree that until major evidence is revealed in the case, it could be a mountain lion, bear, hog, or other animal. It may also be caused by a barbed wire, set accordingly by guys in tin foil hats during lightning storms. Then, we'll be chill until the next cougar topic pops up in a month or two...

There is no barbed wire fence in Montana!!!

Crazyhorse,My mother mailed me the article from the Times leader,so yes I have the article in front of me.I'd be more than happy to either mail or fax a copy of the article,complete with photos to anyone.There's pictures of two dead hogs in the article.I'm not sure how clear the pictures will be on a fax but they should be clear if I mail a copy.You can also notify the PGC in Dallas.They are aware of the situation.