Rabid mountain lion shot north of Phoenix after attacking boy

[slackmaster]

Posting this preemptively in the Gungeon because we all know what happens when information of this kind is posted in GD, and it's too stale for LBN. I present it as an example of why carrying a loaded, accessible firearm when traveling in deep wilderness might sometimes be a good idea.

3:36 p.m. March 10, 2008

PHOENIX – A rabid mountain lion attacked a 10-year-old boy north of Phoenix, scratching the child before being shot to death, a game official said Monday.

The boy from El Mirage, Ariz., suffered scratches on his back but wasn't seriously injured during Saturday's attack in a sparsely populated area in the Tonto National Forest, said Randy Babb, a biologist with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish.

But the boy will have to undergo a series of shots after being exposed to rabies, Babb said. Game officials are also recommending the shots for other people who touched the lion....

...A member of the group shot the lion twice, killing it, Babb said. He didn't know what kind of weapon was used....

Full article at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080310-1536-wst-lionattack.html

[dmallind]

1. But only paranoid scaredy cats think they should carry in national parks!

I mean it's guaranteed that nothing bad can ever happen in something designated as a national park or forect or reserve, so why on earth would you ever need a gun there?

I eschew sarcasm smilies as a matter of course. If it can't be spotted in such contexts, then those who cannot spot it are unlikely to be able to read seven letter words.

[kestrel91316]

2. Hey, I'm just glad the treatment isn't being described as

"a series of PAINFUL shots" and a big deal made out of the allegedly worse-than-death ordeal of treatment........

Those very painful duck embryo vaccine injections in the abdominal muscles WERE awful, but they haven't been used in over 25 years. The current treatment is no big deal, though Day 1 with the immunoglobulin injection is no walk in the park. The subsequent 3 or 4 injections are teeny weeny little things you barely feel. And yes, I speak from experience, lol.

I had a single duck embryo vaccine in the arm (preventive, not therapeutic) back in 1980 and it's an experience I am glad I didn't have to repeat. Sickest I've EVER been.

[jody]

3. Last year, I saw a mountain lion in the Cleveland National Forest not to far from San Diego CA. n/t

[slackmaster]

4. You are very lucky

I've spent a lot of time in the wilderness and have never seen one.

There are always lion tracks at a place I frequent in Anza-Borrego State Park. (It's near a reliable spring.)

[virginia mountainman]

5. yep, posts like that, make people start quoting repukes in here.

Posting this preemptively in the Gungeon because we all know what happens when information of this kind is posted in GD.....

Yea, usually sets off a group of people who erroneously THINK, the rules of nature don't apply to THEM, or anyone else for that matter and they start preaching the gospel according to Rupuke Sara Brady.

[L1A1Rocker]

6. The answer is not more guns.

It's more rabies vaccine air drops. Poor pooty, nobody cares about the pooties anymore.

[slackmaster]

7. DA POODIES IZ MAH FRENDZ!

[SteveM]

14. Fierce, I say! If I see this cat I'll pet it backwards immediately!

[DonP]

8. The timing here is priceless, Tribune LTTE on keeping guns out of Parks

This letter appeared in the Chicago Tribune today, 3/11/08

Edited to abide by DU ground rules

Full letter at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-080311guns_briefs,0,3085162.story

Keep guns out of our national parks

I'm a member of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (NPS). Recent proposals in the US Congress would allow visitors to carry loaded and concealed firearms in national parks. Our Coalition believes this is a terrible idea.

Pro-gun lobbyists invented a problem that doesn't exist. ... Existing regulations are essential to protect wildlife and prevent poaching and loaded guns are not appropriate

A vocal minority shouldn't change the nature of our national parks.

Americans created the idea of national parks and meant these places to be special. Help keep visitors and wildlife in national parks safe. Contact your elected officials and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. Tell them you oppose changing the regulations that have served the NPS and its visitors well for so long.

(Name)

I wonder if this retiree is willing to meet with the parents of the boy and explain why it would have been better and safer for the general population if that gun would not have been there to stop the mountain lion?

[virginia mountainman]

9. That article will make your I.Q. go down a point or two.

Pro-gun lobbyists invented a problem that doesn't exist.

Would someone PLEASE tell that to the family of the 10 year old boy??? They don't understand that the problem "don't exist".....

That rabid mountain lion , did NOT exist...

[SteveM]

15. Neither do the shootings reported nightly on WGN (Chi.) Sheer fantasy.

[Lex1775]

10. Holy crap!! This is my neck of the woods...

I hike through parts of Tonto National "Forest" (if you call a bunch of cacti and scrub brush a forest;)) a couple of times a month. I've seen a lot of coyotes, rattlesnakes and gila monsters... never any mountain lions.

[enfield collector]

11. yeah me too with my boys, we're always armed. I hit a mountain lion

one morning going to work, I was coming up I17 about 2 miles south of cordes junction.

[Lex1775]

12. I wonder if some of the government types in D.C have any idea:

A) How much untamed wilderness there actually is in the Western states.

and

B) How many people already go into National/State Parks armed.

[L1A1Rocker]

13. How about they pass a law

that bans rabid behavior? Yeah, that'll work.

[SteveM]

16. Kathy Etling, an experienced hunter, has written on this subject...

http://www.amazon.com/Cougar-Attacks-Encounters-Worst-Kind/dp/1592282962

This book is a compendium of attacks by mountain lions (cougars, pumas, panthers, painters). Good advice for folks engaging in outdoor activities in lion country. In Texas, a number of attacks/attempted attacks were recorded in the Big Bend area. They seem to favor small people (kids) trailing at the end of a line of hikers, and of course lone hikers. Though the data is "small," attacks seem to have increased in California since the effective outlawing of mountain lion hunting in that state.

Lions have been spotted in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, and I saw one (panther) in the Florida panhandle in 1970 where they are supposedly extirpated. These sightings aren't enough proof of lion re-habitation because they could be "escapees" of zoos and dingbats who take them on as kittens ...but release them when they start texturizing wall paneling.