Possible liger prowling near my home

[TSquared]

This is about a mile from my house:
From the Ventura County Star:
Exotic big cat remains on prowl, officials say

By Staff reports
February 21, 2005

After a 14-hour search Sunday, an exotic big cat was still on the loose in eastern Ventura County.

Wildlife officials believe the cat weighs 400 to 600 pounds, and could possibly be a liger -- a cross between a lion and a tiger.

The search centered on the west side of Highway 23 and included ground patrols and a sheriff's helicopter scanning with infrared devices. New paw prints were found Friday west of the highway near Read Road.

Lorna Bernard, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game, said Sunday's search, which ended at 8 p.m., was difficult because rain could have erased tracks left by the cat.

"It's just washing everything away," she said. "It's been very frustrating."

Residents in the area have been alerted. Traps have been set next to the highway and near the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Wildlife officials plan to continue the search today at 7 a.m.


And if that isn't enough:

The coyotes have been going crazy the last couple of nights;
The rain may teach me the meaning of a floating slab;
My cats have been attcking my patio door --- the local roof rats are seeking shelter but the worst:

I'm redoing my kitchen with granite tiles. One side is finished (the range side). The sink side is ready for Redgard and thatswhen I found my new sink is defective. Looks like we will continue to wash dishes in the bar sink for awhile longer.

Ted

[Sponsored Links]

[John Corley]

Wasen't a Liger Napoleon Dynamites favorite animal??

[TSquared]

Now I don't know anything about Napolean Dynamite but I found this quote using Google:

Deb:**What are you drawing?
Napoleon Dynamite:**A liger.
Deb:**What is a liger?
Napoleon Dynamite:**It's prety much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed - bred for its skills in magic.


Ted

[jdm]

Don't know about you, but I wouldn't linger around no liger.

[jjwq8]

Its a werewolf fer crissakes!

[TSquared]

Well the "liger" turned out to be a Bengal tiger. Sadly the animal was shot and killed by California fish & game officials.

Ted

[Bill Vincent]

Ehere'd the animal come from? Was it someone's "pet"?

[TSquared]

Bill,
A short while back a number of big cats were discoved on someones property nearby and they were relocated by fish and game. The owner had permits for them but not for that location. Of course this guy claims all of his were accounted for but I'm not sure fish and game is buying that. He claims one of them died sometime ago. Anyway fish & game are continuing their investigation.

An interesting sidenote --- the junior college that is in the same town has a nationally recognized curriculem in wild animal training. Fish & game went there first to make sure they didn't lose any animals. I haven't been there in awhile but the students put on wild animal acts as part of their education which includes care, feeding, etc.

Ted

[Davestone]

Why is it sometimes they'll bust their ass to rescue a mouse, then instead of tranquilizing a large beautiful animal, they'll shoot it. :)

[Raymond S]

Read on the AP wire that the tranquilizer would have taken several minutes to act and they were frightened about what he might decide to do in the meantime, so for their own safety they had to shoot it.

[Bill Vincent]

That's what I was thinking when I read Dave's post-- a mouse can't turn around and kill em. It still sucks, though. I hate to see anything killed needlessly. I guess I'm kinda strange in that way. I love to hunt, and I won't think twice about dropping a nice buck, but if I'm driving down the road and hit an animal, I feel sick for the next couple of hours.

[smee]

What a bunch of 0#^$#^%$ A**holes. I hope they get fined for killing an endangered - VERY - endangered animal.

...This just sends me over the edge - tranquilizers work rather quickly. They probably were afraid they wouldn't hit it. I can't believe they killed it. Jerks.

[Raymond S]

Trackers had to shoot to kill because a tranquilizer would have taken five to 10 minutes to bring down the animal, Bernard said. They were concerned the animal might attack them or bolt onto a nearby highway. The animal was killed near Simi Valley, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

This is a quote. AP breaking news, Wed, Feb 23, 2005

[Davestone]

Then they shoulda used MD20/20, got me locked up twice, rather quickly. :yeah:They always say that, but tranquilizers always worked on Daktari, and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. :sheep:

[Steven Hauser]

:sick: MD 20/20

Damn Dave that brings back memories.

That and Kamikazee shooter contests.

:loaded:

You remember the drill? Buy one 6 pack of the good beer (insert personal preference here) then buy a case of something like Schaeffer or Milwaukees Beast.

Oh the pain....

Aw :crap: It just dawned on me what my boys will be doing in a few years.

[Davestone]

Oh, yeah,well i'm not kiddin about the maddog,sent me to the pokey everytime i touched it. :crazy: I was a pretty accomplished drinker when i went to Germany. I laid low the first time i went out, then, thought, hey this isn't as strong as they said, the second night i went for broke, and drank things i couldn't pronounce. I set a world record that night, throwing up into a shoe box from the top bunk,three times, and never missed. :sick:

[Eric Philson]

People certainly aren't endangered as a species by any far stretch, but I've yet to see a critter, even a purty, endangered critter that was worth endangering one human life for. Sorry if that's cold.

[smee]

you don't have to be sorry Eric - we're all entitled to feel what feel's right to us...

just keep your eyes out for the neighbors dog - it could kill you too.

I feel strongly that they could have handled it differently without endangering anyone.

When I was younger, I worked at the SFZoo and Marine World - I worked very closely, especially at Marine World with tigers. So, I have a very personal affinity for them. I also used to take care of exotics that were privately owned. They don't much allow that these days - but there used to be a lot of cheetahs, jaguars, ocelots and other large cats in peoples backyards.

I think it was a case of not knowing what else to do.

[Jim Farrell Tiler]

I cant understand anyone keeping a lion or tiger as a pet, my dog makes enough byproduct, we recently had a woman mauled to death by her Bullmastif dog she used to give it a hard time, so one day the dog had had enough. The police shot the dog but couldnt help her as the dog had scalped her and ripped her face off - what would a tiger or lion do. :sick:

[Eric Philson]

Actually, I've been attacked by dogs twice. I'm still here, they ain't. :)

[jjwq8]

That says more about your character than their's :D

[Eric Philson]

Well..... they attacked a little more than my character. I hope you're not serious. Would you allow yourself to be mauled by someones precious pit bull or by cujo? That's what came after me. what's a guy to do? By the way I really do like puppys and kittys, even big ones, but not naughty mean ones. :whip:

[jjwq8]

Trips to the vet with members of the posse give me the heebee jeebees. Locals are in thrall of American Pit Bulls and Mastiffs which they fight. These poor creatures all have their ears removed and are often the bearers of horrific scars and wounds. There are no laws governing such activities and the vets are often at their wits end. Surprisingly there are very strict rules about euthanazing animals and when I recently had to have our elder statesman put down was required to first sign all sorts of forms and produce ID.
Abuse your animal and nobody cares but try to have it put down and all sorts of alarms go off.:shake:

[Eric Philson]

When I was a kid, back in Pennsylvania, We had some of these kinds of dogs running wild in packs. Imagine the impact on the deer. Then They'd turn on livestock too. Finally when some attacked a wildlife officer in a state forest, people became pretty serious about getting rid of them. All they were though were someones pet that had either run off or been put out at some point. It's tragic, like the tiger, but something needed to be done before someone was hurt, not after the fact.

[Bill Vincent]

Actually, I've been attacked by dogs twice. I'm still here, they ain't. :)

Dogs are alot like kids. You raise them with alot of love and attention, they grow up to be just as friendly and well manored as can be. You treat them like garbage, and they'll act out and get mean. In my way of thinking, when a dog attacks someone. the OWNER should be shot-- not the dog.

As for big cats, though, they're wild animals, and the attempt shouldn't even be MADE to domesticate them. Same with wolves (I know a couple of people up here that own them). They may ACT tame, but there'll always be that wild instinct still inside of them, and when it happens that they act out on that instinct, it's not their fault for being in a situation where someone gets killed. It's the person's fault who PUT them there that's to blame. The outcome is usually the same-- the animal gets put down. But NO wild animal should be put in that position. ESPECIALLY a predator.

[TSquared]

The article in todays local paper has a lot of information in it. This topic has stired up a lot of interest locally:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/mo/article/0,1375,VCS_167_3575616,00.html (registration may be required)

Ted

[smee]

I agree Bill. Almost always when a dog has behavioral issues the owner is overlooked. It can be as simple as not giving your dog enough activity. The natural distance for the average size dog is 20 miles a day. So, taking the dog round the corner for a 15 minute walk and then back in the yard is no way to treat an animal made to move.

There are genetic anomalies - however they are much rarer than generally thought, especially where pitbulls are concerned. Pitbulls are genetically very docile and submissive. They have been much maligned as we all know - however, it's people that do that - the dog is very much like a child and feeds off it's owners demeanor. I see very well meaning people mistreating their dogs because they have created an anxious, hyper, often untrained animal and get pissed off at how it behaves.....hello?

About the big cats - the "pets" I took care of - that was over 20 years ago - and primarily in Marin, CA - which should 'splain a lot. It's no longer legal to own endangered species. I've spent a lot of time near animals like this - and yes the potential is always there - we must have a great respect for the power they have. However, we assume some evolutionary ownership of all things in the natural world and often make grave mistakes in our "Managing" wildlife. I won't even get started....

[Eric Philson]

Well said Bill.

[Bill Vincent]

There are genetic anomalies - however they are much rarer than generally thought, especially where pitbulls are concerned. Pitbulls are genetically very docile and submissive. They have been much maligned as we all know - however, it's people that do that - the dog is very much like a child and feeds off it's owners demeanor. I see very well meaning people mistreating their dogs because they have created an anxious, hyper, often untrained animal and get pissed off at how it behaves.....hello?

I couldn't agree more. I can't tell you how many arguments I've gotten into with people about dogs, and how some breeds are more agressive than others and so forth-- even my own wife-- she's absolutely terrified of german shepards, and in her case, I can understand it, because all the shepards she's come in contact with were all guard dogs. But I've owned shepards all my life, and every one of them were just as playful as can be, and God forbid anyone were to break into our home, most likely the dog would be there looking for attention, than protecting the home! Even as a kid, I remember there was a contractor on my paper route who had this HUGE shepard, trained as a guard dog. This dog was EASILY 140 pounds. I mean, imagine a shepard the size of a great dane!! This guy would let the dog out on friday and saturday nights, and every saturday and sunday morning, the dog would accompany me around my paper route (could be that he got steak bones every sunday morning-- he'd carry that thing all the way through my route and then go home and chew on it). As long as he wasn't penned up, that dog was just as loveable as a dog could be. But if he was in his pen at the house, I couldn't get near him. The point is that he was TRAINED that way, but his natural demeanor was to be friendly and loveable. I've had the same aruments about rottie's, dobies, and pitbulls. I'll trust a pitbull before I'll trust ANY of the smaller breeds!!

[rich7]

Thats all bs..my daughter is a vet and she says they have tranquilizers that are almost instant acting...they shot the animal so the big manly trackers could feel like they had a pair..scum bags...some day I will get a tracker in my sights

rich

[flatfloor]

Almost instant acting .....hmm :rolleyes: