Wondering if you have killed an animal in self defence.
I killed a cougar this past Saturday in self defence.
Went out Saturday looking for black bear, morning hours all was able to see was groups of people camping, so I thought if I get away from the rivers and up into the alpine a little, The attraction of water may keep the campers away.Found some fresh bear scat, got warm mid day so chilled out and had a mid day snooze, was on my feet hiking by 3:30, covered some of the same ground what I had seen fresh scat.
Was walking up a deactivated logging road up towards a series of clear cuts with a patch of bush between each clear cut., was more interested in glassing the distance vs the immediate 50 yards in front of me.
As I walked up this old road towards the crest of a hill, a full grown cougar came over the crest of the hill and we made eye contact at the same time.
We were 27 yards apart.
This was the 1st cougar I have ever seen live in the wild.
I have never had an animal so intently look at me in 42 years of hunting.
These are full on predators.
Of course my rifle is over my shoulder.......duh !!!!!
Slowly it come off and Down to my side then up slowly to my shoulder.
As my eye fell in behind the scope , the cougar hissed and took 2 definite steps straight at me and I settled the cross hair 6 inches under his chin centre between the shoulders and pulled the trigger.
He dropped in his tracks and did not move.
After calming down, I called Squamish conservation and got patched into a 3 way call with a conservation officer.
Explained I killed a cougar in self defence at 20-25 yards, which I later paced out to 27 yards.
I made a video of the scene, paced out the yardage.
Got the cougar in the back of my truck and headed out.
After meeting up with the officer, surrendering the animal, gave a statement showed the officer the video. We lifted the animal into the back of his truck and he said he is likely around 130 pounds and in his prime was 150-175 pounds.
We examined the animal which the officer said he is quite old, one side of his mouth was completely void of teeth, on old blunt fang from the top, and swollen bottom gums, so he was struggling to eat. Hip bones and portion of spine was quite prevalent, officer said is is a bit emaciated, the back end was slowly losing it muscle, front shoulders and neck where still very muscular.
Front paws were massive, the size of my hand, but also missing claws, there were a couple razors in each pad though.
In speaking with the officer, after the phone conversation, He said he figured this would be an old or young cougar, young and dumb does not know better or old and not as capable. Don’t deal to often with healthy cougars.
The officer said they will have their biologist look at the animal.
They would be in touch if they needed anything further from me.
I did not have a cougar tag, and openly stated that on the phone and when we met in person stated it again.
The officer indicated I did the right thing by calling in immediately.
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