Sheriff Furlong was right all along

Surveillance video of a mountain lion attack on sheep in a barn off the end of Snyder/Golden Eagle Lane proves that Sheriff Ken Furlong was right all along. Nobody was shooting sheep in Butterfield Country. It was a mountain lion attacking sheep for a quick meal. Furlong figured that the lion would take down its prey, and then come back for it later.

We here at News Carson City thought the same thing, in that we saw a mountain lion bounding across Golden Eagle Lane the night of that horrible roll-over fatal accident that claimed the life of a driver and badly injured his passenger. The vehicle was headed northbound on Golden Eagle, but for some unknown reason, suddenly swerved out of control, rolled over, ejecting the driver. He was later pronounced dead at Renown in Reno. Again, within ten minutes of the accident, a mountain lion was seen bounding over the pavement not 200 feet south of the accident scene, the animal headed back toward the river. Could the lion have jumped out in front of the GMC, prompting the driver to swerve to avoid hitting it? Possibly. An interview with the surviving passenger might shed some light on things, if the passenger was paying attention. Both were intoxicated at the time and it all probably happened within a split second. A fast running/bounding mountain lion would have been in the driver’s field of vision for probably less than a second.

A word to the wise might be, that since we do have a mountain lion roaming the south end of Carson City in the Prison Hill area right off the river, anyone with young children or small pets in this area should be very careful with both. There have been a number of mountain lion attacks in the Sierra on lone hikers. Obviously this particular mountain lion has no fear of sneaking around ranches and barns. So it wouldn’t take much for it to encroach on residential homes abutting BLM lands around Prison Hill.

ADVICE FOR RESIDENTS/HIKERS:
The general advice to avoid being eaten by a mountain lion is to travel in groups. If you encounter a mountain lion by yourself or with your children, stop, make yourself look as big as possible, and pick up small children and put them on your shoulders to make you appear even larger. Aggressively defend your position. The idea is to deter their attack by making them think that it isn’t going to be easy for them. Pick up a branch or a rock to help fight them if needed. They are just big kitty-cats, so you don’t want to appear as smaller prey to them. In particular, running away makes them think you are prey, and will encourage an attack. Yell for help by screaming cougar! or something similarly specific rather than just help!.

Do not take your dog with you into the wilderness, if you want to reduce your chances of a cougar attack. According to Banff National Park Chief Warden Ian Syme, “Many people like to take a dog along in the wilderness because it gives them a sense of security. They feel they will be protected from cougars. But that’s not the case. Dogs are an attractant in most cases.”

However, you may not have to worry about taking action to prevent an attack, since mountain lions ordinarily either lie hidden, waiting for prey to approach beneath them, or approach unseen, and then attack and kill by a bite to the back of the neck that severs the spinal cord. This was the modus operandi for the attack on Barbara Schoener.

…from website listing mountain lion attacks over the past 100 years in the U.S….