Mountain lions in Pa?

[ironcowboy]

Yea, thats the story i posted just above, maybe it was bothering his animals? Or coming at him?

[MartinBrody]

From Philly.com

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news...__farmer_.html

Did mountain lion attack Pa. farmer?

By Peter Mucha

Inquirer Staff Writer
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is investigating an attack on a southern Lancaster County farmer who believes the culprit was a mountain lion.

The last confirmed case of a mountain lion running wild in the state was in the 1960s, after one escaped from a circus or a menagerie, said Joe Kosack, commission spokesman.

Samuel Fisher was attacked near his home around 6 p.m. yesterday, and was taken to a hospital, Kosack said.

The commission had been getting eyewitness reports of three big cats. "A black one, a brown one and a tan one may have been roaming the area together," Kosack said.

Fisher reported seeing two big cats, shooting at one and wounding it. "While he was trailing it, he claims one of the animals attacked," Kosack said.

The Sadsbury Township farmer said it was a mountain lion that leaped from a tree onto his back, a neighbor told the Intelligencer Journal. When the animals began to claw his chest, he stabbed the cat with a knife and it ran off, the newspaper reported.

As of early this afternoon, however, commission officers have been unable to find any evidence of mountain lions in the area.

After smoothing out some ground, the officers left the carcass of a deer killed on a road, hoping to at least detect pawprints.

"They're down there trying to sort out what happened," Kosack said. "... We're not saying these people aren't seeing something. But we don't know what they are seeing."

Wild bobcats live in Pennsylvania, but even big ones weigh only about 30 pounds, and they're generally found in mountainous areas, not Lancaster County.

If the animals are mountain lions - also known as cougars, panthers, pumas or catamounts - perhaps they had been exotic pets.

"It's possible that somebody had an escape, or got tired of taking care of something that big," Kosack said.

Wild mountain lions haven't roamed Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, he said. "That's when they became extinct."

Or at least that's the Game Commission's belief.

Some people disagree, Kosack said.

In 2003, a Chester County man shot video in his backyard of what could have been a cougar. (See photo at right.)

Naaman Smoker was from Kennett Square - about 15 miles southeast of Sadsbury Township.

Over the last decades, dozens of other people have also reported seeing cougars in Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Northern Delaware.

In October 2006, a Berlin Borough, Camden County, man snapped a few pictures of a cougar-like cat in a nearby soccer field - a couple of months after a hunter reported seeing two cougars near Wildwood.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.

[WA3UFN]

About 2 years ago I swear that I saw a mountain lion on Rte. 322, about 1-2 miles from the intersection of 322 and 153 (Rockton Mtn.). It was standing next to a deer carcass along the road. There was a car too close and behind me to stop quickly and of course no camera on hand!!

[Green Lantern]

Turns out that the whole thing was a hoax

[bigdog02]

Release #113-08




GAME COMMISSION RELEASES RESULTS OF ALLEGED MOUNTAIN LION ATTACK



HARRISBURG - In announcing the current results of its ongoing investigation into an alleged mountain lion attack on Oct. 9, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today announced that there is no evidence that the alleged attack on Samuel Fisher, 42, of Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County, occurred.



Game Commission officials were called to an area of Mount Pleasant Road, when Fisher alleged to have shot one large cat and then was attacked and injured by a second large cat.



A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter was brought into the area to search for the presence of the alleged animal using a FLIR Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera. Search dogs specifically trained to find and follow the trail of cats detected no cat activity in the area other than a small house cat.


Game Commission officers gathered numerous samples at the scene alleged to be blood. Those samples were sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab for testing. Samples collected from multiple sites at the incident, including the alleged blood trail, area where Fisher allegedly shot the animal and where Fisher allegedly fought with the animal, all tested negative for blood by the State Police laboratory. While the chemical testing did indicate the presence of blood on the knife that Fisher allegedly used to stab the animal, the lab also found that the knife contained deer hair. The knife is being sent to the East Stroudsburg University for further analysis of the blood in an effort to identify what type of blood it is.



Investigating officers found no evidence of mountain lion hair or scat or tracks at, around or in the vicinity of the alleged incident.



Charges may be filed against Fisher for making false or fraudulent statements.


“The Pennsylvania Game Commission has no evidence of wild, breeding populations of large cats in Pennsylvania to date,” said Doug Killough, Game Commission Southeast Region director. “With that in mind, we do acknowledge that numerous people do have exotic animals which escape or are released illegally. While this incident is considered to be a hoax, we will continue to investigate credible sightings or evidence of exotic wildlife.”



To reiterate his point, Killough noted that, in the past 10 years, confirmed sightings of wallabies, wolf-hybrids, emus, alligators and other non-native exotic wildlife have been captured in the Southeast Region. Also, in 2002, charges were filed against a Dauphin County resident for illegal possession of a mountain lion that had been purchased in Virginia.



# # #



Content Last Modified on 10/20/2008 10:34:22 AM

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/v...?Q=175304&A=11

[Pa. Patriot]

Turns out that the whole thing was a hoax

What?!?! Say it ain't so

[God's Country]

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/v...?Q=175304&A=11

Do you really expect the game commission to admit they exist?
If they did they may have to explain why they introduced them and have been denying it.
Of course they'll cover it up.

[bigdog02]

I cannot engage in this conversation any further without my tinfoil hat!!

[Black Label]

Tinfoil hats.

Why must everything be a conspiracy?

[Dredly]

Not to bring bad dead topics but in the early 80's coyotes didn't "exist" in PA either.

My dad shot one with his bow in about 82 - 83 and the local game warden called him a liar, he took the animal in to show them and they basically said uhhh this shouldn't be here where did you shoot it... etc.

And Yes I believe the PGC imported them, just for the record... its the kind of thing they would definately do to address deer issues in the suburbs instead of letting hunters at them. Its much easier to explain "wild packs of dogs" to people then "hunters aren't bad people"

Today they are as common as foxes, probably even more so.

15 years ago the PGC said there were no Bobcat in PA... now they are giving out tags to trap them

Do I believe that we could have mountain lions in PA? ABSOLUTELY! Its a huge state with massive areas of land that is relatively untouched during 90% of the year, plentiful game, and good weather for them. The real question should be why DON'T we have mountain lions?