Chicago Cougar

So you probably heard about the cougar that was shot dead by police in the Roscoe Village neighborhood in Chicago. The big topic of debate has been whether it was necessary to kill the cougar. I don't think that's issue at hand. I'm offended by the quotes provided by the police at the scene. They have gone on record as saying that the cougar was attacking them and that's the reason why they had to shoot it. I don't buy it. It's been reported that 18 shots were fired. 18. Lemme get this straight. There's a cougar attacking you. You need 18 shots to kill it? Gimme a break.

Let's say I buy their story. For a cougar to be attacking something or someone, the cougar would need to be within a somewhat close range of the subject it is apparently attacking. So why did it take 18 shots to take down the cougar? Either the Chicago police who killed the cougar are incredible terrible gunsmen with absolutely no aim or they are liars.

JA3 cleared up this issue for me. I am sorry, Chicago Police.

as a side note, I would have preferred for animal control to tranquilize the cougar. However, if police were the first on the scene, then they couldn't simply wait for animal control to come. The cougar was seen jumping 6 foot fences with ease. Something had to be done. I don't have a problem with the cops shooting it, but I don't appreciate the cops telling the public that the cougar was attacking them and that's the reason why they killed it. Tell me that you killed the cougar to protect the public because this thing could jump 6 foot fences with ease and there's no telling what damage the cougar would have done and leave it at that.

You have to understand how police are trained to respond to deadly threats. They are not trained to reevaluate the situation and make a new decision after every shot, because most deadly force situations are over in a matter of a few seconds and the time spent on deciding whether to keep shooting is likely to get them killed. The rule is, once you start shooting, you empty the clip and make decisions while you reload. 18 shots is probably the result of two officers unloading the entire contents of their service pistols.

It may sound insane to civilians, but they're constantly studying how to keep police alive in deadly force situations.

And without going into too much detail, but having some experience with these things -- If I had to take down a mountain lion, or any large mammal of unknown condition with a 9mm service pistol, I would've done the same thing, and been ready to fire 18 more if it was still on its feet.

If a cougar is walking towards me in a city, I would be EXTREMELY afraid and think it was attacking me. It wouldn't take much for me to think the cougar was attacking me.

Here's an example. I was on a paper mill trip with some co-workers a couple years ago. We were staying out in the middle of the woods in some house. A friend and I were walking around in the woods and we came up to a river with a bridge. COOL! Let's cross the bridge. As I'm about to cross the bridge, there's a fox on the other end. OH COOL! A FOX! And then the fox starts running down the bridge towards me. I freak out thinking the thing is attacking me. I run away from the bridge. Ends up as soon as the fox got off my side of the bridge, it totally darted in a different direction. So the fox was more scared of me, and it saw getting off the bridge was the only way it was gonna survive.

So if i thought a little fox was attacking me in the woods, I'm certain if i saw a COUGAR in the CITY, my first thought would be if that thing is even facing me, that it's gonna attack me.

I'm sorry, but cougars ARE NOT MEANT TO BE ROAMING IN THE CITY. PERIOD. The safety of the citizens--HUMAN BEINGS come first no matter what.

Dude, cougars are scary. I bet if you saw one on your block jumping 6 foot high fences, able to travel 40 miles in a day, you'd crap your pants, and you'd want that thing elminiated no matter how. Drop an anvil on its head for all i care.

JA3's explaination i s very good. Yeah, moose i can see how you don't want the police making excuses for firing so many shots. But given the situation, public safety comes first and if it means unloading your clip, then unload it.

I guess my thought is... What difference does it make how many shots they used? Their primary concern was to eliminate the threat to both themselves and to the community at large.

And I have to agree with Spud in that it wouldn't have taken much for me to assume the cougar was going to attack. If we were in close quarters and that animal took so much as one step in my general direction, I would be very inclined to open fire.

Even if they had exercised an unusual amount of self control given the situation and been able to stop firing after only 3-4 bullets, the cougar would probably have died anyway. So, if the end result is a dead cougar, my question remains... what difference does it make how many shots were fired.

I am sad that a cat was killed. He probably thought that he was on some great adventure and was being a pioneer, exploring new territory. Then the natives shot him. He was probably very confused. :(

We were recently very surprised to see a coyote walking down the middle of the street in our very suburban neighborhood. I'm SO GLAD I didn't call the police about it...

From what I heard, you could count on your two hands the number of recorded mt. lion attacks on humans. I believe it is VERY rare. I also believe there are FAR MORE recorded attacks of humans on mt. lions.

Diana,

I hope you don't have small dogs because coyotes have been known to kill/eat small dogs that they come across.