Oh, give me a home where the mountain lions roam

[bluemingidiot]

When I was in real estate briefly in Austin after discharge from the Army in the early 70s, we went to a home just listed in rural Travis County. The lady had two adult mountain lions and one juvenile in her home.

My stepson's wife had a young mountain lion that slept in her room when she was a preteen in the late 90s. After about six months the mountain lion started having conflicts with their Rottweilers so they got rid of it.

When I bought five acres in northwestern Llano county in 1999 I found an emu egg on it. When the emu market collapsed people just released their animals to run wild.

In the first years of this Millennium I had a neighbor who said he saw a monkey on a Llano County dirt road. I believe him.

I hear people talking all the time about how far mountain lions roam. What worries me is all the people who have wild and/or exotic animals in their homes or on their property. I do not believe that most wild animals can be domesticated. I do believe that they can be well fed--one way or another.

In the second half of the 20th Century, pet owners released Burmese pythons into the Florida wetlands and now they are wiping out native species.

While I may not be for taking your gun, I might take your exotic pet.  You have no Second Amendment right to exotic animals, even for self-protection purposes.

[oldone]

A few years ago in Ohio a man that had many many wild cats let them all loose & then killed his self. It was near or in Zanesville, Ohio. They had to kill all these animals. It was terrible. I'm surprised none of the big cats killed anyone.

[mogal]

We had friends who ran a private rescue/rehab sanctuary for many years. The wife passed almost 3 years ago and the husband's health wouldn't allow him to continue alone so he had to rehome all of their animals. In the time we knew them they had everything from baby critters including a saw whet owl fledgling to snakes, a 4' long alligator, wolves, coyotes African and mountain lions, an Angus cow that had been born at the sale barn to a cow that wasn't supposed to be pregnant, domestic cats and dogs to horses including a dressage trained Shire draft horse. These were the people who supplied us with barn cats for many years including the superannuated gentleman we have now that I've written about before--the old guy that has only 4 nubbins instead of teeth.

DH loves tigers and at one time they had a 600+ Siberian tiger named Zeus DH always wanted to see when we visited them. The owners were very conscientious in building strong housing for their critters so both they and their few guests could see or work (them, not the guests) on the animals safely. Part of Zeus' housing included a floor to ceiling chain link fence beside a walk way. Zeus had been sitting on top of his sleeping quarters when DH and Dale started towards the door with Deb and me a few feet behind. DH was walking nearest that chain link fence--thank goodness for that chain link fence. Without a sound, Zeus flowed off his sleeping space and in one step, hit that fence with his massive paws and mouth open right at DH's head. Neither Deb who had been looking at me nor the two men knew anything was amiss until I gasped. BOY DID I GASP! Dale yelled at Zeus but I don't think Zeus cared one whit.

Some time later, I stopped by their house when I was by myself. Deb had a new Bengal tiger cub, maybe 10#, and looking more like a stuffed toy than a real critter. He was sick and Deb needed to run inside to get some meds for him. She asked me to keep talking to him while she was gone. Well, his enclosure was across the walkway where DH and Dale had been when Zeus went for DH. I got this odd feeling I was being watched. When I looked up, there was Zeus. He was sitting in the corner of his enclosure nearest me, head lowered a bit, eyes totally focused on me. All of a sudden, I knew how a mouse felt. As soon as Deb returned, I excused myself and NEVER went back into that building. Zeus died a couple of years before Deb did so he was gone long before Dale had to find him a new home.

Wanna guess which side of the exotics as pets question I am on? Most of the tigers our friends had had come from "breeders," people who would keep a tiger female caged closely and anaesthetized when she was in season for artificial insemination. When the cubs were born, they were immediately taken from their mother for hand rearing. At weaning they were sold to whomever had the purchase price. Or so Deb told us.

[jenn]

Some Earl in ENgland has a wildlife drive thru on his estate near Bath which we visited. Gates between different enclosures and strict windows up. The lions certainly looked at us like we were lunch, and glad we followed the guidelines for monkey area- they were going to town on another vehicles wipers etc.