Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

1259.0. "Mountain Lion in Massachusetts ......" by SALEM::PAPPALARDO () Wed Mar 31 1993 11:19

    
    Reprinted without permission from Lawrence Eagle-Tribune 3/3/0/93
    
    
    
                       Residents warned about very big cat!
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    Easton,Mass. (AP)- Sightings of what is believed to be a mountain lion
    have prompted officials here to tell homeowners to go inside at the 
    first sign of the animal and warn children not to play in the woods.
             "This is a big cat," said Easton Police Chief Stanley Bates.
    "It looks like it weighs at least 150 pounds." 
             The animal was first spotted March 20th on the town's main
    street. Police have received an estimated 50 reports a day of sightings, 
    and officials even managed to capture it on videotape.
             Police in nearby Mansfield received reports of ducks and
    chickens being killed in the last week, and Stonehill College officials
    said they have seen an influx of deer onto the wooded campus.
    
             Specialists who viewed the videotape suspect the lion was
    raised in captivity and escaped or was released, because it showed
    little reaction to loud noises.
    
             "It just sat there licking itself like a big domestic house
    cat," Cheif Bates said. "Only this was no house cat."
    
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             I saw the original news report on one of the local channels
    somewhere around the 20th and the interveiwed a few people that had
    sightings of the cat. These people were very foolish in not giving
    this animal the respect it deserves and what it could do to someone
    if provoked. One woman pulled into her driveway and saw the cat in
    the backyard and got out of the car and told it too "Shoo." When it
    stared her down she decided it was safer in her car and to blow the
    horn to scare it off. The video footage showed tracks in the snow 
    that seemed fairly good sized. Lets see how long it takes these
    amateurs to push this cat into a postion that they end up killing
    it for the sake of "Safety."
    
                                                     Guy
    

    I heard the latest was the video was made up somewhat. I saw the video
    on the news of course and it didn't look like anything other than a
    very big house cat. Then the guy on the news (Chet something or other
    on Ch. 5) says but we don't want a buch of big game hunters to go after
    this cat. Oh well.....
    							Bret