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Despite lack of official confirmation, reports of a cougar or mountain lion loose between North Manchester and Silver Lake continue to surface.
According to Jackie Patrick, North Manchester, she has not only had livestock maimed and killed by the animal, but has seen and heard it on at least one occasion. Her father-in-law also may have seen the animal.
Patrick said that during the week of July 22, a 230-pound show pig was mauled to death in a barn at her property. The pig was not eaten but was left to die, probably, according to Patrick, because the family's German shepherd dogs scared the animal off.
Patrick said the marks left all over the animal were claw marks and one large bite wound. She also found a set of large footprints in the mud near her barn. The prints were more than twice the size of those her dogs leave behind, she said.
On another occasion, previous to the pig's killing, Patrick said, she both heard and saw the animal. Late one evening, as her dogs were barking, Patrick said, she went outside to check on the barn and saw a large animal, tan in color, running toward the woods. She said the animal had a long tail that stood straight in the air and the animal was about twice the size of her German shepherds.
Before going outside, Patrick said, she heard a "spine-chilling" scream. The sound, she said, was similar to a woman's scream but was definitely that of an animal. Patrick and other members of her family have heard the scream on other occasions since then.
More tales of slain livestock and even a family dog have surfaced as well, but confirmation in other cases was not possible.
According to Dr. Richard Sasso, who treated a variety of wild cats when a Pierceton man worked as an exotic animal breeder, the possiblity of a mountain lion is small, but does exist.
Despite what he called "very adequate and complete" compounds where these types of animals are kept, escape is not impossible.
Karen Hoag, of Black Pine Animal Farm, Albion, agreed with Sasso, saying that if there is a cougar in the wild, it likely has escaped or been set free.
Another possibility is that the cat is a transient. According to John A. Lutz, director of the Eastern Puma Research Network, there have been confirmed cougar sightings in both Ohio and Illinois, so one traveling through Indiana would not be out of the question.
Hoag, who has raised cougars for 14 years, said that while the possibility of a cougar loose is likely, in her opinion the attacks reported are inconsistent with a typical cougar attack.
Cougars, which have five fishhook-like claws, generally attack from the rear, sinking all five, and always at least four claws, into their prey. They then kill with a single suffocating bite wound, or by breaking their prey's neck. They do not kill for sport, Hoag said.
Regarding the family dog reported killed by the cat, Hoag said that is possible only if the cougar was raised domestically. Wild cougars are known to be as afraid of canines as a typical house cat, but human-raised cougars sometimes make dogs their prey of choice.
