Cougars?

[Minimor]

Jenny--you are in BC is that correct? There is surely a dept of Natural Resources, or Conservation, whatever it might be called, for your area. Not sure what you looked under but there will be a Game warden somewhere that you can call. Our wardens were natural resource officers, now they are conservation officers--but people still call them game wardens.

 

[Minimor]

Check this site--there will be contact info somewhere in the site:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/cos/index.htm

 

[paintponylvr]

I'm going to take this a bit further, since you've had lots of good advice about the Warden and protection for Breaker.

I'd be worried about "the guy" who is telling you this. I gather from your posts that you are a teen and maybe a young lady?? See how your parents feel about taking hunter safety courses and keeping some type of weapon available - either in the house or in the barn - FOR PROTECTION FROM A CAT or OTHER WILDLIFE. IF wildlife does get into your barn and you enter the barn, you may be attacked when the critter feels trapped...

Also, see about taking some self-defense courses for yourself - to protect yourself from a "human predator". And let your local police/warden's know that you have a "strange neighbor" in the area and that you are concerned. Make a note and keep it of when this person has been around and what was said (dates/times), also see if he has let others know the same info & have parents/law verify it, so that you have a record of it for those in charge that you may speak with.

Every little bit can help in a case of a "human predator". Once upon a time, I used a pot of boiling water (just like they did in the "old days") - it worked very well in that it stopped the guy from harassing me and my younger sister in my rented home on 10 acres AND the burns made him doubly identifiable. A set of car keys, a finger nail file, there are things that can become weapons in case you are cornered or caught by a person. Understand though that a larger person can also take them away from you and use them themselves - that's why a self-defense course is a good thing. You can learn to use parts of your own body to protect the rest of it - safely and EFFECTIVELY.

Keeping your wits about you rather than panicking is your first line of defense in any case - both critter and human.

 

[Jenny]

Debby: We don't know this guy personally, but our neighbours do. He lives down the road on his property that very heavily wooded. He has lots of wildlife like deer, moose, and cougars. He knocked on our neighbours door the other day too and apparently he's just going around to everyone's door (there's not that many people that live here, it's mostly summer cabins) and warning them. He said they're on his property, but he is way back in the woods.

Minimor: Thank you for the link! I'll check that out.

paintponylvr: I don't think this guy is dangerous, I just think he's a bit eccentric and an alarmist. Yes, I'm fifteen. We do have several firearms here, not in the house, but we do have them. I don't know how to use them, but I want to learn and I think after I turn sixteen I will. My parents are always home (they work from home) besides going into town to pick up a package or grocery shop, and even then one of them is usually home. Thank you for the advice and I'll keep this in mind.

 

[BSharpRanch]

We had cougars, bobcats, black bears and wolverines umong other wildlife as neighbors when we lived in NE Washington state. We believe the donkey met a cougar once and won, and we lost just a couple cats to coyotes. We were blessed in the fact that in 8 years we didn't have but the one incident and our horses were out 24/7 with just a run in shelter. Our stallion and mini bull did have a barn, but we left their doors open all the time. What kept us from having issues? Dogs that ran maybe. Don't know and at the time really did not worry too much. We lived 1 1/2 miles off the main highway up on the mountain, our nearest neighbor was 3/4 of a mile up the mountain.

We did have friends who lived on the highway about 2 miles from our place that were awakened by someone knocking on their front door. Turned out that a lion had their dog and was trying to eat it. Our friend was nude with just his bedroom slippers, but he charged out the door and clubbed the lion with a slipper! It frightened thw lion and it released the dog and run off. The dog suffered some minor injuries and lived through the ordeal. Game and fish trapped the lion a few weeks later. It was young and starving, had evedently lost it's mother and didn't yet know how to hunt.

Another friend, who also lived on the highway on the otger side of our small town was awakened in the middle of the night by banging on their front door. When they opened the door, there was a big black bear clawing at the storm door. They yelled at it and made a racket but it kept clawing at the door. The husband went out thw back door, came around to the front and shot the bear. When they removed the body they found a little mouse down in the corner of the door!

The strangest thing we ever had was when we had a couple tiny frogs move into the travel trailer we lived in while building our house. I would catch them and take them to the pond. A few nights later they would return. I took them to the far side of the pond. A few nights later they would be back. I finally took them to a pond about a mile up the mountain. It took them a week, but they came back! We left them alone after that.

 

[nighttrain]

In years past I lived on a ranch that was in the heart of cougar country. In all the years I lived there (27) I never saw a cougar except one that was treed by a US government lion survey group staying at the ranch. They are very elusive and prefer no human contact.

Where we live now there are a lot of predators - bears, cougars-bob cats- and neighbor dogs. We see cougar tracks very close but never see the animals..

In the day time I don't worry about them at all. At night all my animals are shut in the barn and safe. I wouldn't consider leaving anything out at night.

Somehow I have a feeling that your neighbor is exaggerating. Do you have any St. Bernard dogs in the neighborhood? They have great big feet to and leave big prints.

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[susanne]

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Unfortunately, many do exaggerate without meaning to frighten. Still others enjoy seeing the reactions of others to their stories.

When we first moved out here, one of our neighbors kept insisting that coyotes around our area could easily take down a big horse, so I'd better be afraid. He then proceeded to tell me about another neighbor's "Arabian stallion" who was so vicious he would grab and kill any dog walking by on the road outside their pasture. Well...I know these neighbors, and they've only owned quarter horse geldings, so his veracity and credibility were immediately questionable. He wasn't a nasty, mean man; he was just a blowhard who enjoyed getting a reaction.