Sells checked the area on Friday afternoon and was able to verify the lion from paw prints and photos on the trail camera. The cat was hidden in the area and did not move until the other man nearly stepped on it.
Both Sells and the other man then shot and killed the mountain lion.
“This was definitely something I did not want to do, but this cat was within just a couple of hundred yards of a house with small children who often play in the woods exactly where the lion was,” said Sells.
Sells said the decision to shoot the lion was based on its proximity to houses, approximately eight within a mile, and the fact that the cat was not exhibiting normal behavior of trying to avoid humans.
Within a minute of having shot the lion, Sells said a school bus come down the gravel road and dropped off kids at the nearby house. The children all began sledding in an open area right next to the kill site and would have been playing less than 200 yards from where lion had been.
“It is unfortunate that the lion had to be killed, but given the obvious public safety concern there was really no alternative. Our primary concern is the protection of human life in this case,” said Sells.
The mountain lion was a larger animal than other cats that have been killed or spotted in Iowa, weighing an estimated 160 to 180 pounds. The cat did not have any tattoos or any other signs of having been raised in captivity. Tissue samples were taken to have DNA analysis done to try and determine where the mountain lion originated. Most mountain lions that have been spotted in Iowa are believed to have been males driven from their territories in western states.
Every time something different wanders into Iowa, we have to shoot it to protect ourselves. Big Cats, bear, moose, etc. All are a danger to us, REALLY? What about the states where they are common? Does everybody carry a gun and shoot them on site? NO, they learn to live with them.
If it were my children, I would have taken them to the woods to look at nature. The cat had a deer, he had NO interest in humans.
You’re nuts.
Give him a paid vacation. He shot something.
@Sad But True, The “Cat” was 200 yards, that is 600 feet from a families children playing in their yard, which they frequent the woods that the “cat” was in. I’m sure if it was your children you would feel a little different.
Cat was NO threat! What a waste, saved by the DNR