Pet Cougar

Is there anything wrong is keeping a pet cougar? I ask this because I have just read an article on the extocicatz.com website, by an obviously caring and decent women (the video below is unconnected to this woman). She extols the benefits of keeping cougars as pets. Her relationship with her female cougar is very special she says. And I believe her absolutely. She lives with a 70 lb female cougar. This lady also has a tiger, Canadian Lynx, Caracal, and a few Servals. It is a kind of mini zoo. I don't know what the facilities are like. This lady endorses and promotes the relationship that can be formed between wildcat or domestic cat and person. I can empathize with that. It can be as special as she says. It is different to a person to person relationship but as good - no doubt about it. Often it is better, more reliable and more consistent because our cat companions are often more reliable and more consistent than human partners.

Well, if not that they are more predictable and don't argue back. And it would seem that with tamed wild cats the bond between cat and person can be stronger than that between domestic cat and person. I am not sure why that is; probably because the cat is more intelligent and active, which makes the relationship more intense. Wild cats or wild cat hybrids are considered more intelligent than pure domestic cats because the demands of survival in the wild are higher than when the cat is domesticated, which trains the brain to think better.

Her article is called "The Last Pet Cougar". The title refers to the gradual introduction of legislation prohibiting the keeping of exotic pets. In Florida, for example, there is talk of expanding the list of Class I wildlife to prohibiting the personal possession of cougars and cheetahs. Class I species, in Florida, (in relation to cats) are currently (src: myfwc.com):

• Snow leopards (Panthera uncia)
• Leopards (Panthera pardus)
• Jaguars (Panthera onca)
• Tigers (Panthera tigris)
• Lions (Panthera leo)

People are very divided on the “ownership” of exotic cats by which I mean wild cats. It all depends on your view of the world and our place in it. There are pros and cons but it is nearly always the case that we measure the pros in reference to the benefits to us and rarely see cons in relation to wild cats generally. Our view can often be narrow and based on serving self interest.

If our ideal objective is to live in harmony on this planet with wildlife and to respect all wildlife in meeting that objective then keeping a pet cougar is not good, I suggest. This point of view is the pure animal lover point of view, some people call it the animal extremists point of view. This point of view allows animals to live naturally as they were intended in the kind of habitat and space that is suited to them without the interference of people other than to admire and observe. To meet that purest of objectives would require a complete change in attitude by billions of people.

Keeping a pet cougar does not meet this objective. The cougar is not adapted to living in a cage or confined spaces (and for a cougar, pretty much all we can provide equates to confinement). It is not meant to be domesticated. Although it could be argued that we domesticated the small wild cat 9,000 years ago so why not domesticate the big cats too! The life of a pet cougar is not only bad for the cougar (arguably) but is also bad for his or her fellow cougars that are left in the wild. This is because keeping pet cougars encourages the capture and sale of big cats. And lots of people in America search for “exotic big cats for sale”. Keeping a pet cougar encourages abuse of the cougar and is a selfish act. This statement is underpinned by how the lady (mentioned above) talks about her cougar. She refers to “ownership” of the cougar. The word is used without a second thought. This is a person who cares deeply about her cougar companion but she owns it.

It is perhaps wrong to be critical because a lot of good is being done in keeping a pet cougar in the way that she is, but at the bottom line it is wrong, in my view, and millions of Americans will disagree with that and not even understand it. But the concept of ownership of a wild cat indicates that the relationship is one sided, that the relationship is for our benefit and that there is a disregard for the bigger and wider issues; how to live in harmony with the wild cats.

Wild cats are, in a general sense, persecuted by people through human activity causing habitat loss and, in the case of the cougar by sport hunting. The gruesome sport hunting of cougar is still allowed in the USA and it is done with dogs! How barbaric is that? It is shocking in the 21st century that this is sanctioned by the state. It is an activity that is the ultimate expression of people serving their inner base instincts to the ultimate detriment of the cougar, whose population is declining and will continue to decline. The cougar is being used to destruction for the pleasure of a few people driven by prehistoric emotions. And it is big business. Suppliers feed on that basic emotion (to hunt, which was once about survival). Rarely do women hunt. It is the preserve of men who are playing out what is hard wired from eons gone by; to hunt and gather. Only we have moved on and they don’t realise it.

Generally speaking wild cats are gradually heading towards extinction despite the fact that the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ (Red List) classifies the cougar as Least Concern (see below). We should, I argue be thinking of these things if we really love the cougar and want to live with one. In short if we want to live with a cougar because we like the idea of a close relationship with one, we should resist the temptation of adopting (buying) one and work on the bigger cause of protecting the cougar in the wild.

Buying a pet cougar encourages the business of trade in exotic cats. That can only be detrimental to wild cats. Keeping a pet cougar encourages trade in other wildlife. Keeping (no, “owing”) a pet cougar encourages less responsible people to do the same thing to the further detriment of the cougar (that they are keeping) and cougars generally (and themselves, I suspect). Keeping a pet cougar sends out a signal that it is OK to do this and therefore OK to ignore the wider issues. It is a process that does not turn back the gradual drift towards extinction of the wildcats but silently and almost invisibly encourages all that is wrong with our relationship with the wild cats. And it is the people, like this lady, who contribute to what they no doubt hate.

A final word about the concept propagated by the Red List people. They say the cougar is of Least Concern because “it is a widespread species”.

Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, nor Near Threatened, nor (prior to 2001) Conservation Dependent. Many common species such as the Rock Pigeon, Human Human, Common Juniper, the Snail Kite and Sacred Kingfisher are assigned the Least Concern category.

Species cannot be assigned the Least Concern category unless they have had their population status evaluated. That is, adequate information is needed to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status…Wikipedia.

How can the cougar be of least concern when the Red List say that is has been destroyed from large tracts of habitat and its population is declining? I personally don’t get it. But I do know that this assessment encourages the business of sport hunting and I wonder if there something going on there. Is business affecting the classification of the cougar by the Red List people by providing inaccurate data on population size?

If we look at the cougar over a long period of time meaning look into the past for thousands of years and then project into the future for thousands of years we can only draw the conclusion that the cougar is endangered in respect of likelihood of extinction in the wild. Keeping a pet cougar furthers that process.

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Conspiracy to Eradicate the Florida Panther

This is fanciful, maybe. Extreme and ridiculous possibly, but could there be a conspiracy to eradicate the Florida panther to make way for that holy grail of business profit, property development?

The Florida panther AKA Florida cougar or just plain old mountain lion (as it is not a sub species) stands firmly in the path of economic progress and has done so throughout its entire existence. And there is circumstantial evidence that supports the supposition that there is a conspiracy to eradicate the Florida panther.

Take the recent killing of a young breeding female, for instance. The story was released in about 11th June 2009 but the shooting took place in April 2009. The female was about to breed precious new cougars. There are less than one hundred so each one counts and this one loss represents 2% of all Florida panther females. The police seem to be taking it seriously but have made little progress. The shooting happened in Hendry County, very close to the Big Cypress National Preserve –see below:

The Florida panther is Florida’s official state animal and shooting it has been illegal since 1958. Despite that people still shoot it (8 have been shot, 6 fatally). But there have been only two prosecutions and of those two the most severe sentence was probation!
As development pressure grows the pressure to get rid of the cougar grows too. There is circumstantial evidence that points to the fact that this latest killing may be a “contract killing”. Circumstantial evidence of the hidden war against the cougar is:

1. the massively flawed reports on conservation that were produced over a long period of time and which skewed decisions by the authorities to allow development on cougar habitat
2. the appointment, recently, of Sam Hamilton as the head of the South-eastern Region of the FWS. He has a relatively poor track record of enforcing the Endangered Species Act 1973 and seems to make decisions that favour commercial development
3. a large percentage of scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) claimed to be pressured into modifying reports to favour business development.
4. the continued development of protected habitat in Florida (see more on the above here: Florida Panther)
5. in respect of this last shooting the cat did not wear a radio collar so tracking the last steps is impossible (comment: with under 1oo to care for I would have thought each one would wear a collar or was it wearing one and was it was removed?)
6. wildlife officials (managed ultimately by Sam Hamilton, the head) won’t release any details – I thought they are a public body serving the public under which transparency would or should be obligatory.

If it is not the bullet it is the car – see chart above (src: Tampabay.com). Probably the biggest threat is traffic, which has expanded significantly with rampant road building. Lets not forget that Florida is one of the most desirable places to live on the planet. And we know people cannot live in harmony with the mountain lion. Something has to give and it won't be us. I allege that there could be a conspiracy to eradicate the Florida panther that is behind this latest shooting.



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More on the Puma:

Mountain Lion Tracks -how to spot Puma paw prints Mountain Lion Attack -human and animal attacks are discussed Mountain Lion Sounds - these are based on those of our pet cat Mountain Lion Cubs - a page on the early years plus vids + pics Florida Panther*** - about business and politics and death Cougar sightings Cougar Pictures - captive - wild - camera trap - game farm Puma Cat the Name - a well used name and there are lots Texas Mountain Lion - look at the range/distribution of this cat

Photo of Florida panther at Flamingo Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, Florida : published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License -- this site is for charitable purposes in funding cat rescue and conservation.

Airgun Attacks on Cats

Airgun attacks on cats keep on occurring in the UK. There seems to be a type of person in the UK, probably a young person, who is idle, sloppy, rather nasty and very badly brought up who likes to shoot cats with an air gun. These mysterious cat haters seem to populate all four corners of our island (see i hate cats). My vision or instinct (admittedly probably biased but it is all I have to go on) is that these social underclass types, mindlessly take pleasure in this sick pastime. I can visualise him looking out of his bedroom window wondering what to do and then seeing a cat wander by below decides that it would be amusing to test his hunting skills with the air gun his absent father bought him for Christmas.

If he was in America his father would have bought him a high powered hunting rifle and spent many an hour telling him how he had bravely stalked cougars in the mountains. Of course he wouldn’t have mentioned that the cougar had no chance because he used a pack of bl**dy hounds to track and corner the cat before shooting it at close range. It is the same thing only on a different scale as for all things American. In America they eat more and kill more than in Great Britain but the same mentality exists for that “type” of person. The one who simply doesn’t get it, who never will get it and who arrogantly and with ignorance looks down on other animals as objects to shoot.

These strange people have no awareness that an animal feels pain and pleasure. That they have a right to exist just as much as people, whether they are domestic cats or wild cats. A particularly hideous example of hunting cougar is when these mindless idiots stalk female cougars with cubs. The cubs are left motherless on her tragic and mindless death and die too. And it is that, the mindlessness of it all that disturbs me. There is a vast number of people who are simply switched off.

And, yes, I am talking down to these people because that is all one can do. Why is the world so divided over hunting? There are millions of people who see nothing wrong in hunting and shooting a mountain lion in America. And there is an equal number who hate the very thought of it. How dysfunctional is that? All I know is that it is wrong, very wrong and that it is a nasty throwback to the time hundreds and thousands of years ago when hunting was a necessity – it is no longer, so please stop!

What prompted this post was the usual story in the UK of yet more cats being shot and badly injured by air gun pellets. On this occasion it is in Oxfordshire. The home of well heeled people and Oxford University. The cat keeper concerned is Denise French of of Gwyneth Road, Littlemore.

Her cat is Pippin who needed an amputation of the leg after being shot late in June. The area is marked on the map to the right.

This is the second time it has happened and I would expect it to be the same person or group of people who carried out the criminality on both occasions and I would also expect them to be local. Pippin would roam the scrubland behind her house. This implies that it happened there and as I said that the culprit is local, perhaps very local. I would knock on doors!

Mrs French hopes the news story will shame the criminal into stopping – a fat chance! If this person had a conscience he wouldn’t do it in the first place. The only way is to catch him and punish him and the police are not all that good at that, really they’re not. This is low level crime despite a pretty hefty sentence on conviction of a maximum of 6 months in jail and a fine of £20,000. It is also worth mentioning that such low level crime (in the eyes of the police) is often a precursor to serious crime against people as it is sign of a maladjusted individual.

The above cat enclosure has no connection with this story – just a nice example of a cat enclosure which by the way give peace of mind to us – so double benefit. Photo by Shamey Jo (new window)

On good thing has come out of this. Mrs French has decided to build a cat enclosure and to stop her cats wandering. I like cat enclosures. They allow a cat to be outdoors, to smell the outdoors and watch. Cats can watch for endless hours and take amusement from it. Notice the contrast in forms of amusement. The human likes to kill to amuse while the cat watches. And I don’t want to hear people say that domestic cats wipe out a ton of wildlife. This is not true but something propagated by bird conservation societies and the like in their war against the cat. Anyway outside a cat enclosure birds are protected.

The RSPCA agree that they see all to many cases of cats being shot with airguns. Many are killed and those that aren’t have the quality of their lives severely curtailed, very often.

Another airgun attack on cats also occurred in Oxfordshire, this time in nearby Chinnor, Oxfordshire. Both incidents are marked together below:

I don’t think that these are related because, as mentioned, my view is that the shooters live near to where the shooting took place. I cannot see a person driving around the country (and these two shootings are 15 miles apart) just to find a cat to shoot (unless they are seriously barmy as well as nasty). But airgun attacks on cats is so easy and convenient. Airguns can be bought over the counter in the same way real guns can in the USA. And in the UK cats are often left to wander unlike in the US. The airgun attacks on cats are a crime waiting to happen because all you need to create that toxic mix is an ignorant, idiotic and nasty individual to aim the gun at the cat.

I would advocate more cat enclosures in the UK and for cats to be managed a little more carefully. Gone are the good ole days when human population was a lot lower and traffic far less than today. We still act in a manner reminiscent of the 1950s concerning cats going out and wandering. Although, I personally don’t like the idea of a cat being permanently kept indoors especially when there is room outside in the garden to build a cat enclosure. In the US, where there is a lot more space and property prices significantly more manageable, a cat enclosure would seem a real possibility but few take it up preferring to keep their cat indoors. Sure, there are still risks of catching fleas and ticks etc. in an enclosure but there is risk in everything and risk needs to be set against quality of life.

See also:

• Cat Indoors or Out
• Cat poison - another hideous act of cruelty often

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Airgun attacks on cats –source of news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Fall injuries incurred because of cats

There are some interesting statistics on the subject of fall injuries incurred because of cats that are published by on the www.cdc.gov website. They naturally tell us a lot about us more than they do about our cats. They relate to the USA.

This is what I gleaned from the data and which is of interest to me and I hope people who keep and live with cats:

In 2006 in the USA dogs out numbered cats 43m to 37.5m. And in well over half of these households (64% in fact) there was more than one pet. The data collected indicate that cats and dogs present a “fall hazard”. I can understand that and it could be argued that we don’t need nationwide statistics to tell us that. A stray that I feed always gets under my feet because he is so pleased to see me (as he knows he’ll get food). He walks right in front of me and stops regularly. A sure fire way of causing a trip up!

In the USA, in 2006, 1% of 8m fall injuries, treated in hospital emergency departments, were caused by pets. The data will underestimate the true number as some accidents go unreported and some are treated in GP surgeries. Of these falls the majority happened when walking a dog (very few cats get walked!) and chasing cats or dogs (I suspect this relates more to cats though). The research indicated that proactive, preventative measures should be taken (don’t chase a cat for starters).

As expected the highest number of injuries occurred in relation to older people who also are more likely to keep (and a better equipped to keep) companion animals. They are also more likely to break something when they fall.

Other interesting information (which was admitted to be incomplete) is as follows:

Dogs are more likely to be involved in a person falling than cats (71.5 thousand to 9.7 thousand, a significant difference).

As to people, females are more likely to fall and be injured (68.7% females to 31.3% males – also a large difference). This would imply to me that women are walking their dog and falling over (rarely of course but those would seem to be the circumstances under which most accidents of this nature occurred).

As to people, the age group under which most accidents happened was the young (0-14) followed closely by 45-54.

The most common injury was the fracture at about 31% of all injuries followed by abrasions at 26%.

The area of the person’s body most injured was the arm or hand (27%) followed by the head and neck (23%).

Most accidents happened at home (by far, at 86%) .

And most accidents occurred when people chased a pet (11.7%) when they fell over the animal (66%).

If a conclusion can be drawn it is that people (mainly but only just, children) are recklessly (!) chasing their companion animal around the house and falling over causing a broken bone in their hand or arm.

Fall injuries incurred because of cats - Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5811a1.htm (new window)

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Reason to Keep Your Cat Indoors

Here is another reason to keep your cat indoors, permanently. It is all over the cat news. It is the always fatal (although this could be 95% fatality), no cure, bobcat tick disease. The disease is caused by the blood parasite Cytauxzoon felis, which is carried by the American dog tick, which in turn is carried by the American bobcat in America but in Africa, this disease is carried by ungulates (animals with hooves). The parasite does not affect the bobcat, which is widely distributed throughout the USA. The disease is called cytauxzoonosis after the name of the parasite.

"The pathogen is spread to domestic cats through the American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis), which can be found in heavily wooded areas and fields. Because of the route of infection, it is most likely that outdoor cats develop the disease. The biggest risk of infection occurs in May through September, but even during that time, it is a very rare disease." (Wikipedia)

Above: Range of the American Bobcat. Published under Wikimedia® creative commons license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. Author: Tim Marskell

Although it is rare, it is fatal which creates a dilemma for cat owners. Do we let them out? When a cat lives in an area that is suitable to go out (i.e. quite and traffic free - are there such places?) there is this added danger. It is a fast moving and nasty disease that causes a painful death.

Initially, the disease shows no apparent symptoms. When the symptoms show the cat is near death. Quite shocking and frightening. The disease is in the news because of the loss of 4 cats in one family nor far from Topeka, Kansas:


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The first cat to die used to spend a lot of time outdoors in a hedgerow

The disease is caused by a protozoa microorganism, which gets into the red blood cells of the cat which causes severe anemia. There are also blood flow problems through some of the cat's organs e.g. the liver and spleen. The organs fail. The symptoms start 1 to 2 weeks after infection and are:

• A high temperature - 105 degrees + the normal body temperature is 99.5 to 100.5 degrees)
• Anorexia
• Lethargy
• Jaundice in the eyes, gums, and skin (skin looks yellow). This is due to liver damage.

Historically this nasty disease is found in the south and south east of the USA . The temperature and humidity are high in these areas. However, it is migrating north and west due to climate change and bobcat migration.

As the disease is fatal the only action that can be taken is preventative measures and it is regrettably one more reason to keep your cat indoors. This is a shame. Keeping cats indoors will prevent transmission of the disease from bobcat to ground to domestic cat. Another measure is the well known Frontline:

"Although it can be prevented in most cases by use of such medicines as Frontline, there have been cases of cats treated with this medication that have died of Cytauxzoonosis because of the delay between application and absorption into the hair follicle of the feline"

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