Clayton Cramer shows just how nutty the State of California is becoming, warning about Mountain Lion predation, but the prohibiting all weapons, and suggesting such things as this:
Do all you can to appear larger. Raise your arms. Open your jacket if you are wearing one. Throw stones, branches, or whatever you can reach without crouching or turning your back. Wave your arms slowly and speak firmly in a loud voice. The idea is to convince the mountain lion that you are not prey and that you may be a danger to it.
Fight back if attacked. Hikers have fought back successfully with sticks, caps, jackets, garden tools, and their bare hands. Since a mountain lion usually tries to bite the head or neck, try to remain standing and face the attacking animal.
For those of you unfamiliar with feline taxonomy, Mountain Lions, also known as Cougars, are the largest of the Felinae subfamily, which includes Cheetah’s, Lynxes and domestic cats. Clayton notes:
And best of all: firearms are strictly prohibited in the nature preserve. So, remember, if all else fails, fight the mountain lion in hand-to-hand combat. Look, I have had house cats that made me regret trying to pick them up, and I’m supposed to fight a 150 pound mountain lion unarmed?
I think, unfortunately, there are more than a few kooks in the State of California that would think being preyed upon by a Mountain Lions was just desserts (no pun intended) for a species that rapes the earth as much as we do. As a cat person, I would certainly attempt to avoid killing a cat if I could, but I’d prefer to have the option of a few rounds of .44 Magnum. I think it would prove to be much more effective at convincing Mountain Lions that humans are not to be tangled with than harsh language.
I’m not entirely sure why this video game clip seems relevant, but it does: http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=team%20fortress%202%20engineer&tnr=21&vid=1081297077059&l=87&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D1081297077059%26id%3D2532e3c2bf2d0572ae848dc1b9e8d584%26bid%3DzXJb5qCm1PqU8A%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253d4wPZcLVV_ws&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4wPZcLVV_ws&sigr=11abm1tmq&newfp=1&tit=Team+Fortress+2+Engineer+SONG%21
Isn’t that the state where a mountain lion killed a woman, was put down, and more money was donated for the orphaned kittens than the orphaned humans?
And that’s why there are 180gr .357 caliber projectiles, 6″ revolvers, and shoulder holsters that fit under coats…
Nobody who has never seen how fast one of those beautiful animals can move has the slightest idea as to what they can do.
I would suggest dropping the idiots who came up whith those pathetic suggestions into a half-acre preserve with a hungry couger and watch the fun.
To quote InstaGlenn, anything that wants to kick me off the apex of the food chain had better be prepared to wind up as a rug.
Regrettably, I live in this wackadoodle state and it seems every piece of legislation or rules that they come up with appears to be written by a mental midget who is reality-challenged.
– Banning circumcision (overturned)
– Banning Happy Meal Toys
– All of the multitude of USELESS firearms laws
– Amazon tax
– I have to stop due to a headache, but the list goes on and on…
Must be the Medical Pot that helps them write the laws.
I think the over-sized handgun industry owes most of its sales to presence of bears & cougars in the woods (feral dogs are actually a far bigger threat.) The companies who manufacture them really ought to be donating serious money to conserving those species since they are the bread & butter for the industry. Yeah, it’s good to be prepared and people should be allowed their constitutional rights to carry whatever wherever & whenever, but you could count the number of fatal cougar attacks in the last century on your fingers, maybe your fingers and a few toes but that’s all you’d need. The pot growers in the back woods are another story.
Owning cats and a dog myself, I would say that you cannot win a fight with a large cat, unarmed.
Unless you’re a skunk.
Another case of what is good for the government is not good for the individual.
Just looks at these statstics.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/depredation.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/dep-lions-killed.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/dep-permits-issued.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/images/depgraph.gif
Whoever came up with those regulations (not laws, those are voted on) deserves to become a snack themselves.
“Do all you can to appear larger. Raise your arms. Open your jacket if you are wearing one.”
Isn’t this advice from a Simpsons episode? (Where Lisa is Sacagawea and Lenny and Carl are Lewis and Clark and found Eugene, Oregon).
Nice pic of two of the cats on a front lawn nearby was in the LA Times. I had a 350 lb bear and her cub waltz down my driveway and into the backyard a few weeks ago. I was unassured by the lady on 911 telling that “usually they just wander around and leave”. Yippee. Never did see the local animal control types.
Loony place, this is.
The state is sending prisoners from their prisons back to cities and counties due to overcrowding. Various luminaries are predicting higher crime rates from more baddies being on the streets. Relax the nutty concealed carry regs? Oh, no, can’t do that.
I remember reading Full Cry magazine back when there were still folks hunting lions with dogs in California. Prop 117 banned it in 1990. Looking at the chart Mr Cramer linked to, there is a trend of increased attacks since 1990.
http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks_ca.html
I think the big cats used to be scared of people because humans set their Plott hounds on them. Now a whole generation of big cats views humans as lunch.
Lotta people just don’t understand that our ancestors did a helluva job clearing out all the animals that like to EAT people from near where we live. Now that people are not actively keeping them at bay, they’re coming back and are yet again doing what predators do, namely eating people….
I try to bring this kind of thing up during gun-control debates. Firearms aren’t just about safety from other humans, but also about safety from threats much larger.
My aunt lives in a national forest. I live in a rural area. She gets bears walking through her yard. I’ve had freakin’ big possums snarl at me from three feet away. These are not fun experiences. …and morons want to ban all guns “to make everyone safer”?
I am a “cat person,” and even I think they can be fuzzy psychopaths. Not being permitted to defend yourself effectively against a predator as large as I and optimized for melee attacks is nuts.
The hell with the mountain lions in the “nature preserve” up there outside of Los Gatos, I’d be more worried about the Mexican pot-farmers with guns up there. As far as mountain lions go, it ain’t called Los Gatos for nuthin’.