Thanks RC and to the other animal lovers I never once was looking for A way to kill the animal I think its awesome A cougar is in the area. Maybe it could be captured and Craig could have it as A mascot.... Oh don't worry Parker if we find A Viking you guys have first chance at him!!!! LOL! PS: I would just like to thank Cliff Clavin for the last post that really cleared EVERYTHING WE EVER WANTED TO KNOW AND NEVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BIG KITTY! THANKS CLIFFY!

According to material from the American Institute of Biological Sciences Guidelines the cougar has been redefined from FELIS CONCOLOR to PUMA CONCOLOR because the Puma is more closely related to the Cheetah and the Jaguarundi than to the small cats like the bobcat or lynx. And the 32 subspecies have been narrow down to just 6 with only one subspecies for North America and Canada.

If the cat really is a North American cougar, there is no way to prove it was captive, without finding the person/site from where it was released. The appearance of this animal in our county shows the possibility of an ecosystem that can sustain native wild cats, missing from our area for almost 100 years. Shooting this animal for sport doesn't make sense. There is no need to kill the cat. If it is possible to have one cougar, it had to come from somewhere. If it is truly wild, then it has parents and siblings who may also be living in Rock County or adjacent counties.

Urine can tell them more than the blood now that they know exactly the species. Sex, Chemical, Hormone balance, and most importantly has this animal used cocaine in the last 72 hours.

Pregnancy test? Drug screening? Anabolic steroid use during the 06-07 High School Baseball season? ...... C'mon, is this really news!! ....... Or is it part of Tim Bidores Animal Conspiracy theory to distract us from what is really going on?

Urine test? They tested the blood, found out it was a cougar, what could they find out from the urine that they could not find out from the blood?

Where was this lab when we needed it to solve a triple homicide?

Doc, to answer your question based on my knowledge, the cougar is/was bleeding from "its'" paws. If this cougar was a "pet" it was indoors. When released into extreme cold conditions, such that as here in Wisconsin the paws tend to swell and crack, causing the paws to bleed. Kind of like that of a dog, if you've ever noticed.

FYI: I used the word "pet" loosely.

They got samples of both. Still waiting results of the urine test.

Other news sources like Madison TV stations said it was urine that they tested, not blood.

I highly doubt they sent animal blood to a national crime forensics lab. I would imagine the demand to identify animals by blood from their labs is slighly less than the demand to identify DNA from crime scenes.

I'm thrilled that there are still big cats alive and well in Wisconsin. Whether it's an escaped captive or a native, we should try to protect it - not look for ways to kill it. If it is bleeding it could simply be a small wound from a barbed wire fence or some other sharp object. One drop of blood does not necessarily indicate the animal has a large wound. Supposition that the animal is "wounded and dangerous" is pure conjecture - not fact.

"It's official: Animal is a cougar"
.
What was it before it was "official"?

I just have to chime in and say it is much easier to get DNA results on what species an animal is than to determine what individual within a species did 'X'. If all crime labs had to do was tell if a DNA sample was human, it would not take that long, as in the case of the cougar. I am thrilled there is a cougar in our area. The chance of it attacking someone is much smaller than one of us being killed by a drunk driver on our roads. When the cougar haters begin to rail against drunk drivers with the same tenacity used against this animal, maybe we will take them more seriously.

lmfao!!!!!

"So Bob, nice mountain lion. Who did the mount, and where did you bag it?"
"Ah, what?"
"I said, where did you shoot the cougar?"
"Oh, ha, no, ahhh, I bought it off Ebay. If you look real close, it is just a pillow case, shaped like a montain lion."

Am I the only one wondering why the Cougar is bleeding? It could be hurt and angry and that to me I beleive would make it even more dangerous.

Wahoo35, I had the same thought. THey were able to run DNA analysis on a drop of blood that had to be carried through the snow, balanced on a piece of plastic... yet it takes a year to get criminal evidence, from a scene with blood in abundance, matched to known samples.

If evansvillehousewife smells that drop of blood she will lock, load, shoot and shovel!!!

If this cat had killed three people, would it have taken a year to get the DNA results. Or are cats just special.