http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050224-0038-ca-bigcat.html

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

The cat wandered around for eight days without killing anything before they finally killed it.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

How ironic, killed by the department that defends endangered and threatened animals. They did the wrong thing by using bullets. It didn't mention anything that showed it was a direct immediete threat. Only that it stared down a dog. Poor tiger... I hate it when animals are killed for no good reason, especially endangered ones.

A tiger is a killing machine. at over 40 pounds, a hungry tiger will soon quit looking at people as family and start looking at them as prey items. Take some time to read about the Sunderbans. Those animals, beautiful as they are, will stalk, kill and eat adult humans. If it was in a neighborhood and hadn't fed for half a week, it was looking for slow meat.

I guarantee , as Narwhal implies, not F&G person is going to enjoy the assignment of killing such a wonderful animal.

The owner needs a severe spanking for letting an animal like that escape.

Nice try Bot. But we all know what's on your mind.

GUMBO!

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I was very upset over the news but refrain from posting as it may be viewed as "political" by the moderator here. Now that you guys started the thread so I just chime in. I disagree the method they used. The cat had been roaming around for eight days, but yet no one wanted to wait for another ten minutes for the tranquilizer to kick in? Typical government workers, kill the very same thing they are sweared to protect. What a complete waste of a life.

Funny, Anderson 360 on CNN had a segment on exotic animals in America just the night before the tiger was killed. He said there are lines of millionairs willing to pay big bucks to shoot lions and tigers in a controlled environment for fun. Guess the guy who shot the tiger in L.A. just joined the million dollar boy's club. He got all the bragging rights.

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04 Infiniti G35.5 BS
10 X204

All I am thinking is the guy that walked out to get the paper in his bathrobe like Tony Soprano in the wee hours of the morning seeing this thing face to face................and the load he would drop into his shorts about then.

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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

If I know tiger as I think I do, you will never see it coming. Tigers do not hunt from the front. They always attack from the back. So.....you won't even have time to unload your last dump

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95 R129
04 Infiniti G35.5 BS
10 X204

good point......

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

They should have let it roam free, if it's eats a kid or two it's worth saving this beautiful animal from the clutches of an eager hunter.

Yea right.............hind sight is 20/20 foresight is a well placed 375 H&H...

I would much rather see this awesome creature in the wild where it belongs, belongs being SE Asia.

and from the sounds of it that comes to about $10,000/ Lb.

I do know of several places that offer canned hunts, the most famous would be Ted Nugents ranch but I don't know a single serious hunter that has ever stupped low enough to hunt on one other than TN.

I do know several wannabe's that go several times a year for deer and elk penned in.

Some of the pen's are 2000 acres and many come out without seeing an animal and others a pathetic 10 acres.

And for the record I don't support penned hunts of any kind unless they comply with Boone and Crockett's strict fair chase rules. Most fair chase enclosures exceed 10,000 acres and animal almost always wins......the way it should be.

Hey man if you include gas money I'm in the same club

Elau, I understand why you are sad, but let reality check in.

The animal had apparently not fed for several days. Lets assume you're a man of normal weight and activitry. How many days would it take for you to get hungry enough to eat one of your pets?

Now assume you're a 400 pound obligate predator. Assume you live in an area inhabitated by 150# stupid animals that have neither claws nor teetth.

First, the incident did not occur in Los Angeles. It happened in Ventura County, some 45 miles NW of Los Angeles. Ventura County is NOT in Los Angeles (sorry, but that is one of my pet peeves).

Second, some additional information would help put matters into perspective.

I am very familiar with the area where the tiger was shot down. I have hiked in and around the ravine where he was shot. In my opinion, the decision to shoot the tiger was made in haste. Accordingly, a majestic, and nearly extinct, animal was needlessly destroyed.

The tiger (TUFFY was his name) was declawed and very tame. Tuffy roamed for two weeks in an area where people keep horses and other farm animals. In those two weeks, not a single kill was reported. No horses killed, no dogs killed, not anything else killed.

The trackers from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (not California Fish and Game) were aware of the fact that the tiger had not killed anything in over two weeks of roaming. That should have been the first clue that this animal was not your average, dangerous wild tiger. If it had been otherwise, the tiger could have easily killed and eaten a horse, a goat, or some other farm animal. There are also coyotes and deer in the area where the tiger roamed. Not a sinlge deer or coyote was reported killed while Tuffy roamed free. That fact should have made them think twice about using deadly force on Tuffy.

The ravine where Tuffy was shot down is rather narrow and steep. It is bounded on one side by a freeway and by a park on the other side. A little further off there are homes and, across a wide boulevard, there is a middle school. A Sheriff's helicopter hovered above the tiger and constatnlymonitored its movements. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many familiar with the hunt, there was no way that the tiger could have escaped the ravine, undetected, and made it to the area where the homes or the school are located.

Even then, it would have been an easy matter to lock down the school and warn the residents to stay inside. There was no immediate and significant threat of harm to humans.

It was possible to shoot tranquilzing darts into the tiger and then watch him for the next ten minutes or so while the tranquilizer began to take effect. Then, iIf the tranquilizers did not work and the tiger made a move to escape the ravine, the use of deadly force would have been justified.

The men and women from the Sheriff's Dept. were deeply upset about the decision to use of deadly force.

Although the trackers from the Dept. of Agriculture now all spout the same drivel: "we are so sorry about what happened" their actions speak otherwise. There were so many rounds fired at the tiger that, for a moment, it felt like the shootout at OK Corral.

I will not put the life of an animal above the lives of humans (unless the humans happen to be people like Scott Peterson or Michael Jackson, just to name a few that readily come to mind). But in this instance the actions of the men who shot and killed the tiger were unnecessary and reprehensible.

An equal, or greater, degree of blame, of course, should go to the suspected owner fo the tiger. He allowed the tiger to escape and then did not report the escape. Perhaps if he had informed authorities that the tiger was domesticated and declawed, the outcome for Tuffy would have been different.

the owner took a wild animal out of its habitat and then he attempted to "train" the wildness out of him for profit (tuffy was probably rented out to studios for movie shoots). When he failed to come out and claim ownership, the owner essentially sentenced Tuffy to death. Tuffy did not deserve to die the way that he did.

TIGER, TIGER,
by William Blake

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

RIP Tuffy.

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