Thought I'd put my two cents in. I don't know much about mountain lions, but I'm learning. I've lived in the mountains outside Denver Colorado for about ten years and have never even seen a mountain lion. My wife and daughter have both seen them at times, but not me. Bears, yes, lions, no. Then my Australian shephard turned up missing the day after Easter this year. He was found the next day about 50 yards from our house totally torn apart and partially covered with leaves and debris. I was sure it was a lion, but we have bears as well as coyotes in the area. Then three weeks later on a Saturday night, our yellow labrador was pounced on by a lion on our deck, right outside my back door. My wife and I both heard and felt it. It shook the house. It took about 20 seconds for us to get up from the basement and to the back door. My wife got there first and saw out dog on her back up against the door with the lion on top of her. My wife banged on the glass and the lion took off. I was about one second too late, and have STILL never seen a mountain lion. The dog came through with just a wound on the top of her head and a wound on her chest. We also noticed later that she had dried saliva all down the side of her head and under her throat. The division of wildlife people told us that the old male lion that claimed the territory that included our home had died about a month before. Our first dog was killed about a week after that. Then this latest attack three weeks later. They said it's very rare for a lion to be on a dog that long (15-20 seconds) and for the dog to survive. This makes me think that it was probably a young lion that moved into the area after the other older one died. It may hve been a young lion, but it left a track in the mud that measured about 4 1/2 inches across. I asked if the size of the dog matters and they said no. They've known of Wolfhounds and Rottweilers being eaten my lions. So now I'm left with the problem of what to do. I've got a lion around my house that thinks its a good idea to eat dogs. I can shoot it (if I see it) if I feel threatened. The DOW people would rather the lion be "hazed" and tought that contact with humans is bad. They even gave me some rubber shot shells for my 12 guage. If anyone on this site has had any similar experience and has some ideas, I'd like to hear them.

Upgrade your dog to one that eats mountain lions and get two.

try the 3 S approach-shoot him, shovel him under, and shut up. works for ranchers in Montana/ Wyoming/ etc.

If you want to keep your dog,shoot the damn cat if you get the chance,and throw the rubber rounds in the garbage.Your DOW people are worse idiots than the ones here in BC that tell us there aren't any wolves in our area.Next time you talk to them,ask them what about kids in the area. Monashee

Not legal, however, I might think of a few leg hold traps, then an application of buckshot or a slug and SSS. It's grabbing dogs now, you want to take a chance on it 'upgrading' to a child or your wife?

Any lion that gets on a deck/porch is too dangerous not to eliminate at the first opportunity.

Set up the cat. I know this works and have seen it work. Get a good electronic varmit call and run your speaker out to a point in the yard. Get a either a real animal to put in a cage near the speaker or a stuffed animal that looks real. Find a place in your house where you have a good vantage point.

Cats stalk so when you start calling it could be an hour before the cat arrives. When he is in range, let him have it.

I have seen this done with live rabbits in a cage and chickens. I have not seen him do it but I know a guy that bought a remote control rabbit looking animal and his son makes it move while he waits for the shot. He said it works great.

If you have neighbors this may not work and the neighborhood dogs may go ballistic. But if you can do it, it will work with persistance.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
try the 3 S approach-shoot him, shovel him under, and shut up. works for ranchers in Montana/ Wyoming/ etc.

This is CO not CA. Don't have to do the 3 S rule. He can go down and buy a tag over the counter and then shoot the cat if it is in area where he can legally shoot. They are a legal game animal in CO.

Pop the cat and take him down to the local taxidermist and have him made into a rug. Every true westerner needs a cougar skin on the wall.

Well you mentioned that you lived in the Mountains near Denver. You moved into the Mountain Lions home range. MOVE

Steve

Coalcreek1

Mountain lions kill hounds every year however, with that said if you had a hound ( a good one)hopefully he would at least let you and you're wife know there was a lion in you're yard before he attacks another lab or worst yet a small child.

The hound barking may make the lion move off.
Be careful, I once had a Lion stalk me while I was bow hunting for elk, never realized the cat was there until he was six feet behind me. And the only reason I turned around is that Mountain lions make a weird sound like a small bird.

Best of luck.

Steve

If you shoot one try the flesh,a friend of mine who's a taxidermist shot a mtn lion in Montana,skinned it for a mount, boned out the flesh which he said looked like pork ,cooked some and said it tasted like pork.

lion on the grill is very good. I don't know the law in co. but in mt we can run lions with hounds most houndsmen would be glad to chase it up a tree, makes it easier to kill&grill

quote:

Originally posted by wetdog2084:
lion on the grill is very good. I don't know the law in co. but in mt we can run lions with hounds most houndsmen would be glad to chase it up a tree, makes it easier to kill&grill

We run them with dogs too, at least we do now. Who knows how long it will be before all the displaced idiots from California change that though. I don't know how many they take each year in Colorado, but it's quite a lot. They ain't exactly rare.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Lefforge:
Well you mentioned that you lived in the Mountains near Denver. You moved into the Mountain Lions home range. MOVE

Steve

now there is a brilliant suggestion. why didn't i think of it?

A family in Yucaipa,ca reported having 4 adult mtn lions in their yard in the foothills this week, here they're totally protected which borders on stupidity but the tree huggers rule!

i guess they should follow Steve's suggestion and just move-to Wyoming

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Lefforge:
Well you mentioned that you lived in the Mountains near Denver. You moved into the Mountain Lions home range. MOVE

Steve

now there is a brilliant suggestion. why didn't i think of it?

No $hit - Steve why don't you offer to fund the relocation?

I would not hesitate to lay in wait and neutralize it for good, he will be back ask the conservation department to provide one of their dogs for bait, see what type of response you get

Any predator that doesn't avoid MY territory is too stupid and dangerous to be allowed to live.

AD

Here is a Plan, I use it for Bobcats that try to get my ducks. I have killed six so far...

Since you do not have ducls for bait...

Get a whole chicken, not a live one, one from the store.
Put it on a tree limb, in a location thast you can safely shoot to from a window inside your house.

Get a motion detector, and place it so if something goes up the tree it goes off.

When it goes off, open the window, aim and shoot...

Obey all state laws, if possible...

I've heard this works on coyote too...

quote:

...Get a motion detector, and place it so if something goes up the tree it goes off.

When it goes off, open the window, aim and shoot...

Cheers
Tinker

Sounds like a city boy living in the country problem to me.

Yeah, the official NYDEC position is that there are no lions in NY. Right! So I told a DEC officer, that since there are none, if I shoot one in my backyard, I'm not doing anything illegal. No, No, can't do that! Well, the other DEC claim is that any in NY are escaped pets, so I told him it's legal to shoot feral house cats, so they would be feral cats. Looked like he was going to have a shitfit. Shoot, shovel and shutup!

AZ officials are shooting the cats that ate their mountain sheep. Not fair . The only solution is to take the AZ cats here to NY and PA where "there are no cats".
Reintroduce them . I live within sight of Panther Brook so at least there were some here at one time.
Do you have kids in the neighborhood ? Then SSS any cats or rattlesnakes or coyotes.

quote:

Originally posted by MAC:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
try the 3 S approach-shoot him, shovel him under, and shut up. works for ranchers in Montana/ Wyoming/ etc.

This is CO not CA. Don't have to do the 3 S rule. He can go down and buy a tag over the counter and then shoot the cat if it is in area where he can legally shoot. They are a legal game animal in CO.

Pop the cat and take him down to the local taxidermist and have him made into a rug. Every true westerner needs a cougar skin on the wall.

can you trap them there also?

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...st/?intcmp=obnetwork

This will probably go back and forth forever.Too bad they can't let people with brains control the cats.

quote:

Originally posted by MAC:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
try the 3 S approach-shoot him, shovel him under, and shut up. works for ranchers in Montana/ Wyoming/ etc.

This is CO not CA. Don't have to do the 3 S rule. He can go down and buy a tag over the counter and then shoot the cat if it is in area where he can legally shoot. They are a legal game animal in CO.

Pop the cat and take him down to the local taxidermist and have him made into a rug. Every true westerner needs a cougar skin on the wall.

Well, here we run over them on the freeway. Ruins most of the pelts but nothing's perfect.

This works, I had no choice but to shoot him as he was coming at me, lucky I was taking my gun out to clean it in the garage

Or I was barbecuing a steak and he came at me or the steak I am not sure but I had no choice, it was my last steak lucky for me I just finished cleaning my gun and I was bringing it back to the house...

quote:

Originally posted by xs headspace:
Yeah, the official NYDEC position is that there are no lions in NY. Right! So I told a DEC officer, that since there are none, if I shoot one in my backyard, I'm not doing anything illegal. No, No, can't do that! Well, the other DEC claim is that any in NY are escaped pets, so I told him it's legal to shoot feral house cats, so they would be feral cats. Looked like he was going to have a shitfit. Shoot, shovel and shutup!

Show me ONE single reliable trail cam pic of a catamount in any northeast state. There are none so it might take you a while. Do you really think with the 10s of 1000s of cams in the woods there'd be no pics?

Chicago police shot a mountain lion in the city, is a high density residential area deep within the city. The tree huggers made a big deal out of the shooting but he became aggressive at the police and The CPD did what it does best...... BOOM
Reports on this cat in the northwest suburbs where given and hair samples where found matching the cat that was shot in the city. The DNA of this cat was traced to cats found in Colorado, a young male looking for females and driven out of his home area by dominate males

Here is a video of the cat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anKLDP7GOPA

I'm always amazed at people's irrational fear of cougars. I live and hunt where there are lots of them, have seen a few, a couple at very close range, had a few follow me, but never once have I felt I was in danger. Realistically if a cougar wanted to get you there is not much you could do about it. Likely you wouldn't see them coming until it was too late.

So the moral to the story is, go out enjoy the outdoors and forget about those "dangerous" cougars.

Anyone who do not have great fear of large predators that are bold enough to be seen and do not run away from you is a fool in my book. These animals don't mix well with people and most large predator can only survive in places away from people, when we infringe on their space we will soon find out who is the alpha predator. California has a big problem with cougars because they are protected species and have no fear of man, you may have a more healthy respect to this when little kids are snatched.

quote:

Originally posted by Cougarz:
I'm always amazed at people's irrational fear of cougars. I live and hunt where there are lots of them, have seen a few, a couple at very close range, had a few follow me, but never once have I felt I was in danger. Realistically if a cougar wanted to get you there is not much you could do about it. Likely you wouldn't see them coming until it was too late.

So the moral to the story is, go out enjoy the outdoors and forget about those "dangerous" cougars.

quote:

Originally posted by raamw:
Anyone who do not have great fear of large predators that are bold enough to be seen and do not run away from you is a fool in my book. These animals don't mix well with people and most large predator can only survive in places away from people, when we infringe on their space we will soon find out who is the alpha predator. California has a big problem with cougars because they are protected species and have no fear of man, you may have a more healthy respect to this when little kids are snatched.

quote:

Originally posted by Cougarz:
I'm always amazed at people's irrational fear of cougars. I live and hunt where there are lots of them, have seen a few, a couple at very close range, had a few follow me, but never once have I felt I was in danger. Realistically if a cougar wanted to get you there is not much you could do about it. Likely you wouldn't see them coming until it was too late.

So the moral to the story is, go out enjoy the outdoors and forget about those "dangerous" cougars.

So how many have you seen?

Most folks who seem to be afraid of Cougars have never actually seen one. Chances are if you spend enough time out where they live they have seen you more than once and yet somehow you got away unscathed.

If Cougars were really so dangerous than the news would be full of reports weekly of attacks. Why then doesn't this happen? Compared to other large cats in other places in the world getting attacked by a cougar is extraordinarily rare, especially given their numbers. You stand a far better chance getting struck by lightning.

Have not had an encounter with a lion but been 25 feet from a huge brown Bear who walked up on us and latter that week was charged by a large female Brown Bear fortunately it was a bluff charge, to say the least my hair was standing up. Plus a couple of wolves that circled to get down wind so yes I take big predators very serious. My biggest thrill was when we stalked in on a bear carcass in thick alders to see if another bear laid claim. The guide stated in 20 years guiding only had two bears killed on charges and the 2nd one was the year before walking in on a carcass.

Have never seen a mountain lion, other than at a zoo, but keep hearing reported sightings in West Virginia about them in our mountain counties. Lots and lots of deer these days and would provide ready food source for them, but no hard evidence to support their existence to date. Our DNR would be slow to verify if there were evidence I believe for number of years denied existence of coyotes which are plentiful these days. When much younger trekked those mountains pretty hard and was in some areas where such a cat could well live, but only dangerous critters were rattlesnakes and black bears(reported to be population of some 12,000 these days) and the occasional moonshine folks, but no cats. Wherever they may be found is fine with me, but you can keep them there.

You should definitely rename your lab "Lucky", because if you wife had been a few seconds slower, he'd be dead.

I think killing the cat or losing your dog are your only real choices, not to mention, wives or neighborhood children. Yeah, I know how rare lion attacks on people are, but they DO happen.

If you feel anything like I used to feel about my best ever lab, I'd have killed a truckload of lions to keep him alive. Came very close to killing a person who was stupid enough to threaten to shoot the dog in front of me. Dog was instantly a lot safer than the idiot person who, if he had raised his shotgun, would have been dead.

I don't have any good advice on the lion killing processs, you seem to have received plenty. I don't think traps are a very good idea, unless you like trapping your or other's dogs. Good luck.

BTW we supposedly have lions in our area, I'd absolutely love to see one on my ranch, but so far have not. To this point, I am stressing the "supposedly". I firmly instruct all my hunters, NO CATS, large or small.

Lots of unrealistic advise, In my life time liveing with Lions, Ive only seen about 3 on thats on a ranch wherein I trapped maybe more than a 100 and my dad many times more..the are very illusive..

We had dogs, and cats never came close to the house and never killed a dog..If that were to happen we would turn the dogs (hounds) loose and go kill the cat..Did have a cat sneak in and kill a 500 lb. colt, and dragged it a mile then fed on it, got it by the neck and over its shoulder climbed the corral fence, thats how strong they can be..we killed it the same day, using the dogs to tree it on a bluff..

If I were you Id set out a couple of #4 victor traps or whatever you can get in that size, weld a 10 ft 1" chain with a fishook dype drag made of bar on it,,bury the drag/chain under the trap use a trigger pad of levi materrial over the trigger and sift sand or dirt over the trap to cover it, Don;t tie that drag down as that first big jump by a Lion can trash a trap, loose drag he will run off 25 or 50 yards and the drag will catch on what ever, and you can shoot him with a 22 in the head..be sure and tie your dogs up while the traps are out, no need for bait. loins are not buzzards, set the traps in his approach route and lay brush to guide him t0 the poarch or whatever, or if you can find a sandy draw where he travels, thats even better and you can V it with brush to lead him to some traps, He will use that route about ever 10 days as he hunts in a circle. Lions are easy to trap once you figure it out..Lions in Texas are not aggressive where hunted and trapped, that comes with protection by stupid people, the coyotes, bear and even bobcats can loose fear of man when protected..All my experience is in the high desert country of the Texas Big Bend, it may vari in your area so talk to a a trappper, a real trapper btw..Just my 2 bits..

I would think Fish and Game would dart the Lion and move it if killing it is not legal in your area, but you are not required to tolerated that kind of misbehavior form man or beast, if no help is there shoot it and bury it and don't talk about it...

You might want to take the backstraps out and chicken fry them, they do taste like pork chops..Ive eaten it several times, but the idea of eating cat doesn't sit well with me, and I am not picky but Javalina,cat, and pronghorn antelope are not my favorite meals.