CPD 1 Cougar 0

Jesus, who would have thought a 123 pound cougar could have the entire city of Chicago up in arms!? If you don't know the whole story, a cougar was spotted within city limits, police kinda sorta tracked it/tried to find it all day, and then around dinner time, had it corned, it lunged and they shot it.

Well that shooting has everyone in an uproar for no good reason (imo). "Why couldn't they have used a tranquilizer dart?" "Where was animal control?" "The police acted too hastily." etc, etc. Yesterday at 10:00 am, there were already 700+ comments to The Tribune's article. I never knew it but apparently there are some very cougar passionate people within the city limits. Today, The Tribune even had an editorial that stupidly claimed CPD needs to have a policy/procedure in place for "the next cougar."

Now this is the first siting of a cougar in this area in 150-some years, and while our Field Museum scientist says this will probably be happening more often as cougar population increases, I don't think we need to be working diligently for a "procedure." I'm thinking CPD has better ways to spend time/money. From what I've read and heard, there was a procedure. Animal control and cops were both looking for the animal, cops found it first. Even if animal control HAD been there, a tranquilizer, probably would not have been the best option. Tranqs take 10-20 minutes to take effect, and an animal like that can still do serious damage once shot. Would these people have preferred the headline to read "Cougar shot with tranq dart attacks cop/small child/dog/WHATEVER"?!?! It just seems that our priorities are all out of whack.



After listening to our scientist Bruce Patterson talk to media and the entire Museum staff about the cougar, I am even more convinced that the police made the right decision. And as Dr. Patterson pointed out this morning, there is a HUGE outcry over one cougar, but what about the forests that are being torn down every day, displacing animals and throwing things off balance? No one seems to complain about the deer that lost its home, or the wolf that lost its hunting ground when said person moves into his brand new home with the manicured lawn. Just something to think about.