It made me laugh, The sound of Discontent?

I will bet the cat had rabies, usually bobcats do not attack unless provoked. They are somewhat shy animals. I had a mom bobcat and her two kittens walk past me while I was fishing, they were about 40 feet away. One of the kittens wanted to check me out, and he walked toward me. Mom meowed at it to come with her. I love all animals, but this one sounds like something was really wrong with it. The guy is lucky he didn't lose his left eye! OUCH!

@Jeepgal66 - It could have also been out of surprise at the man suddenly entering the garage and the animal finding itself in a confined space. It attacked the man, then ran outside only to find another person out there. Like I state below, if you want to keep the wildlife outside your home, keep your doors securely shut.

I love bobcats and all the big cats too. I've seen both bobcats and mountain lions out in the woods and never had problems with them, probably because they were in their own environment where they felt safe.

hmmm, shot with a gun. bobcats aren't big, but them things are ferocious. A good pal of mine, vietnam vet, killed one with his bare hands. He got it stuffed because he said it gave a bigger fight than any "charlies" did.

Jeep/TheKahn - both good points. Those would be my too thoughts as to possibly why this happened though I'm inclined to lean towards the rabies reason. Seems to make the most sense. Eitherway glad the guy didn't get more permanent injuries, too bad they had to kill the cat but it was for obvious/valid reasons. But talk about guts pinning one down. They aren't huge but like a stick of dynamite when threatened/cornered!

It is time

Now just imagine if they did not have that hand GUN? And NO I'm not a Republican, pure Democrat here and YES a NRA member.

Finely a good reason for having a hand gun around the house, that is unless the NRA will now want to start arming bobcats!!!

"... a handgun, which Mundell used to shoot and kill the animal..."

Broke your heart eh Willie? Sailcat went out and got drunk.

A childhood friend of mine had a bobcat house cat hybrid, when his family went on vacation, they did not leave enough food, their neighbor an Army Vet had a similar encounter, but with better reflexes, he fought it off with a broom. Knocked it across his garage 3 or 4 times before withdrawing to his house for his gun. Same ending but no rabies.

I can only imagine how fiesty a bobcat will be when cornerned or threatened! My cat Einstien will bite and kick then hiss when I lift him off my bed at bedtime!! LOL!

There's a joke in here with, wife, shooting, wild pussy, and husband but the hallway monitors would just jump on it.

Thankfully, he only needs 3 to 5 shots in the arm instead of 12 in the stomach as it's possible the cat had rabies.

Isn't advances in medicine wonderful?

And cheetah-822547, yes, let's keep the Vine PG.

I never knew bobcats would attack humans, even rarely. I used to see them from time to time in Oklahoma and they just stared at me as I went by.

Sam627556 Now just imagine if they did not have that hand GUN? And NO I'm not a Republican, pure Democrat here and YES a NRA member

As an NRA member wouldn't you get a hammer or an automobile instead? Those are just as deadly, right? No, of course you get a gun!

You want to kill something then a gun is usually the best option. It's a tool basically and that's the use for which it was designed.

Linda: The door to the garage was open. How do you think the cat got in? I am quite sure you wouldn't try it yourself. Nice kitty, just walk on out the door now...

Almost certainly rabid.

Me-ouch.

Gee they did what? Killed him with a HANDGUN!!! Damn good thing they had a gun or who knows what would have happened.

I wish I could tell all the animals that humans have no respect for them, and that coming close to humans is a death sentence.

Where is the comment from the user who said "I'm much safer in my house than anyone who owns a gun"? I guess they only post on articles in which the guns are used for bad things.

linda -

Grew up in the woods and around hunting people and hunting dogs. Bobcats will leave you alone unless they are cornered. This one was in an enclosed space, for whatever reason. Either it was rabid, as others have said, or it wandered in thinking it had found a "cave" and attacked when cornered.

The man did nothing to provoke it other than enter its space. That's all it takes.

Where are all the anti-gun folks?

Where is the comment from the user who said "I'm much safer in my house than anyone who owns a gun"? I guess they only post on articles in which the guns are used for bad things.

Again the NRA and their supporters tell us that a hammer, a car, your bare hands or a knife would have sufficed.

"Gladys bring the Impala around back we got a bobcat in the garage!" LOL!

I am with Jeepgal on the rabies theory. I've got bobcats all over around me and when ever I encounter one they turn and run like hell. I even had one trying to make a meal out of a couple of raccoons it had cornered on my patio one night and when I went out to see what the racket was the cat took off immediately once it saw me. In the morning I found half a coon tail and a lot of blood and coon poop on the concrete.

Khan, If the animal has a chance to escape it will almost always will do that instead of fight. Bobcats are shy and usually come out after sunset. I have seen them many times but always at night. This cat had something wrong with it. Also the fact that once the cat left the garage it decided to attack again rather than use the opportunity to flee. It was on the offence so much the guy had the opportunity to get a crutch and pin it down. This cat more than likely had rabies.

Again the NRA and their supporters detractors tell us that a hammer, a car, your bare hands or a knife would have sufficed

There, I fixed it for you.

Or a crutch but please not one of those scarey guns.

screminmimi

Again the NRA and their supporters detractors tell us that a hammer, a car, your bare hands or a knife would have sufficed

There, I fixed it for you.

AGAIN, BS nonsense. That doesn't make squat for sense. Ever since Newtown we have seen these stupid insinuations from NRA supporters that an automobile or a hammer equate to a firearm. I do however understand that you folks live in a parallel universe where logic is in reverse.

you don'tknow jack,

thats a pretty hefty feat to strangle a bobcat bare handed with 20 razor blades slashing at you. I commend him for being a vet and he has my respect. are you sure he didn't catch it in a snare. I live in the woods and have been around them for years. I repeated your story to my friends at work today. All very much into the outdoors. No takers...

voxrationis

As an NRA member wouldn't you get a hammer or an automobile instead? Those are just as deadly, right? No, of course you get a gun! You want to kill something then a gun is usually the best option. It's a tool basically and that's the use for which it was designed.

If there's a point to your sarcasm, it's totally ecliped by the NRA's logic that without a gun, there are other ways to kill, but for self defense against agressive criminals (or in this case animals), a gun will be the most likely to tip the scales in the victim's favor. I'm totally missing the point of your ridicule, other than your atitude.

That takes some real courage to pin a bobcat while someone else goes to get a gun.

They're very lucky they killed the animal so it can be tested - hopefully they can avoid rabies shots.

Guy got cut up pretty bad,hope the kid's ok, at least he'll have a great story to tell.Too bad about the cat.

This is a local story for me. The three family members are all being treated for rabies (the wife because she had contact with the animal's blood). Rabies treatment needs to start immediately. You can't wait for test results. Injections are given in each wound (scratches and bites) in the ER, then they'll have weekly injections for about 6 weeks. My husband went through rabies treatment when he lost a battle with a stray cat.

Injections are given in each wound??? Is that really how it has to be done? Yikes. That's awful.

Kristin, you do initial injections around the wounds along with the immunization, and then continue the immunizations on a schedule over the next several weeks.

That's odd. When our neighbor kid was bitten by a dog a couple of months ago and treated for possible rabies, he just had to take pills.

He probably stooped and tried to grab it. I doubt the cat leaped 5 feet to just attack his face.

So asking an intelligent, humane question is whining?

May I suggest you fetch up some knowledge about the necessity of ecological balance before running your mouth? The writings of Aldo Leopold would be a good start.

In this case, it seems capture ~for quarantine~ was not an option. The health of the creature is a crucial issue.

Do you really need to ask this. When wild animals become so accustomed to people that will enter homes and even attack people they need to be put down to prevent them from attacking again. Basically they loose there fear/caution of people.

Quick to respond, but slow to read. Savoir is not opposed to killing the animal.

Those "whiners" are usually people ask why animals have to be put down in cases when maybe they just escaped their enclosure instead of tranquilizing. This animal should have been put down due to the aggressive seemingly unprovoked attack. I hate it when poeple try and attach one thing to something totally different and try and make an argument that they are the same thing.

Not to mention that it needed to be tested for rabies, which requires that the animal be dead and the brain will be looked at for rabies.

You know, I read plenty on this site and this forum and every time a story about some animal attacking someone runs, there are always a few who invariably, no matter the circumstances, just want the animal freed/saved. That is what I was commenting on. I love animals, but when one attacks a human not once, but twice, well then it's really us or them, isn't it?

A Sand County Almanac is one of my favorite books. But I agree, in this case, at such close range, there was no calling and waiting for authorities to come capture the cat. At a guess, I would say when this man entered the garage, he surprised the animal as much as he was surprised himself. The cat reacted as any wild animal trapped in a confined space and attacked. Humans aren't the only creatures that feel fear and react violently to protect themselves and/or escape.

The final tip of the day - keep the doors to your home and garage securely closed because you never know what might sneak inside. I remember as a teenager in Florida about an alligator getting inside a vacuum store through a back door that was open.

We will later find out they had been feeding it. Never feed wild animals. If they are starving, then there is no food for it in the area. It needs to either go to a new area that has prey, or die. Nature keeps things in equilibrium. Feeding it makes it dependent on humans for survival, and lessens its natural fear of people. They can attack people when that happens. This may explain this attack.

It's also winter which makes food more scarce for such animals. Most of their prey has flown south or is in hibernation. So cats such as this one are hungry nearly all the time. Animals hunt and scavenge by scent, so it must has smelled food. So i wonder if they keep their garbage can in the garage and was there food items in it, like chicken bones and other food scraps?

wheres all the shumerites screaming for gun control , lol, surprised we haven't heard from them idiots on this, shoot the thing again.

Finely a good reason for having a hand gun around the house, that is unless the NRA will now want to start arming bobcats!!!

OK cue the "OK, cue the "why did they have to kill it?" whiners..." whiners

If obama gets his way ,those people would be dead. thank god for guns

Actually Savior laire, I haven't seen many posts claiming "why did they have to kill it"; the only whiner is yourself...

@ thekhanlkubla

the problems was it didn't just run away after leaving the garage. instead it ran right towards the nephew and continued attacking. that is not normal behavior and makes a huge case for it having rabies.

"If obama gets his way ,those people would be dead. thank god for guns"

you do realize that not only did President Obama NOT curb gun ownership since he's been in office but that he actually EXPANDED the rights of gun owners to carry in National Parks? As for any future controls on large-capacity magazines and/or automatic wepons, if you need that many bullets to hit your target, you need to improve your aim

Bobcats are well capable of taking down a large deer--so why was this bobcat incapable of defending itself from these people armed with a crutch? Sounds like a juvenile trapped in the garage, ya think?

lilian101....idiot.

coyotehunter........rude idiot.

not real sure I understand the connection between the two stories but there is a lesson to be learned from the latter, "Always remember and never forget, to charge your wheel chair batteries before cooking"

Wookie,

I've lived in an area similar to Brookfield, MA my whole life. I've never even seen a bobcat, let alone been face mauled by one. This one was definitely rabid. Rabies is a unique disease because it removes fear while promoting aggression, the perfect way to transmit the virus, especially in the second stage of the disease.

The area is rural not urban.

Rosetta Stone to the rescue!

HIs wife didn't give her name.... I wouldn't either if my husband was beaten up by a kitty cat

HA! ... you must not have much experience with non-declawed kitty cats. I have 3, fully-equiped Siberian cats which, when angry, would make you reconsider your statement. :-)

In most fights, dogs against cats, it's the dog that ends up running away yipping in pain.

In most fights, dogs against cats, it's the dog that ends up running away yipping in pain.

Depends on the dog. Pit bulls and other breeds can tear a cat to pieces, literally. And coyotes and wolves regularly prey on cats. On the other hand, more towards the wild side, cats are bigger than canines (lions vs. hyenas for example). So it also depends on what type of environment you are referring to. In the wild, cats rule. In more domesticated regions - or populated ones where people have pets - dogs rule. Simple as that.

I was talking about normal house pets, not dogs trained to fight or wild animals. But I've seen an 8 pound cat chase off a 140 German Shepherd before as well as other dogs. If a cat were of equal size to a dog, the dog would have little chance of winning, even a pit bull, cats are just equipped with better weapons.

In Colorado I once saw a group of five deer surround a feral cat and stomp it to death. Sorry, not related to article.

No kidding Khan! I dated a guy in college who's neighbor had a large housecat. On occasion the neighbors would find a small dead dog on the doorstep, just like some cats leave a mouse or rabbit. One day this cat apparently got sick of the german shepherd next door, and waited in a tree for it. As it landed on the dog it clawed it's neck good enough to almost kill it!

Pure paranoid bull-sheeet, "onermailliw"; there are no bills being proposed by anyone that would prevent a person from having a handgun or hunting rifle. None.

OMG, they had a gun. Was it registered? How much ammo do they have for it? Any mental health issues in the family? These are questions that will be asked if Sen Feinsteins gun control bill is passed.

And those questions should have been asked and answered when the gun was legally purchased. I note that it did NOT require an assault rifle with multiple 30-round clips to dispatch the animal. Seems that a plain vanilla handgun was sufficient.

Is this a "Stand your Ground" State?? The injuries to his face look fake or at least self inflicted. What are you trying to hide Sir? Did you follow this cat all over the woods so it had to defend itself?? Shame on you!

Free GZ in 13.........

Pure paranoid bull-sheeet, "onermailliw"; there are no bills being proposed by anyone that would prevent a person from having a handgun or hunting rifle. None.

Well Rick-881466, you either have not read the bills in question or are incapable of rational thought. Feinsten's bill would outlaw every detachable magazine weapon made, from handguns, hunting rifles, and the 10/22 ruger, along with lever guns like my mother's cherry stock .22 browning that's been in the family for 40 years - Why? because the fixed magazine holds too many rounds. I'm really tired of uninformed fools trying to legislate things they know nothing about, and idiots like you lying to cover them.

And those questions should have been asked and answered when the gun was legally purchased. I note that it did NOT require an assault rifle with multiple 30-round clips to dispatch the animal. Seems that a plain vanilla handgun was sufficient.

Why all the bad press about "assault rifles"? They're such a convenient target for people who aren't familiar with firearms. You do realize that plain vanilla handguns were what was used in the Virginia Tech shooting, don't you? More people died in that shooting than in the one in CT. Also, I hope you realize that you can get multiple 30 round clips for a handgun.

Don't remind people that just before Newtown 22 school children were murdered in China by one man...with a knife.

Don't "F" with AgentZed rick. He might have a "Noisy Cricket"

I prefer old school, Beretta 92, SKS, AR15, Rem 12 gauge, etc, etc.

@ skibum609.

In the incident in China 22 children were INJURED by the knife wielding attacker...None died, thus the difference between a knife and an assault rifle.

please teach the demorats to read , then show them the article, lol

"Bobcat attack really brings out the Loonies!"

Those will be asked anyway. You think?

That is surprising.

Guns don't kill bobcats... people with guns kill bobcats.

Must have been an intern on weekend editorial duty, the poor pup just don't have a lick of sense.

Good post Dave.

My brother lives near this guy. It happened. No conspiracy theories here. You doubt the story? Do the wounds on the guy's face give you any clues?

Were they feeding this cat?

It would explain why it was hanging around their home, and why it wasn't afraid of people.

BP,

Bobcats aren't exactly a common sight around these parts. It has to have been rabid.

Not necessarily BP. I remember a few years ago living in KC when it was reported that a lady went out to her garage and a bobcat was laying on a bench they had out there. The bobcat was obviously human friendly (it was suspected someone was feeding it or it was someone's pet). That one simply raised it's head to look at the lady and then went back to sleep. They left it alone until it wandered off a couple of hours later. There were a few reports like that over the years in different parts of the city. While they do tend to be shy, I've never yet heard of one attack a person even once they got used to humans - unless there was something wrong.

That was my thought. The one time I was lucky enough to see a bobcat near my house, I had to sneak out a back door and carefully point the camera around the corner of the house. I managed to get a couple of good photos of him before he realized I was there, and bolted into the woods in a flash. They're not like mountain lions, who really will stalk a human. One sighting in five years....

I saw one at the edge of the woods when I was in Alaska. By the time I raised my camera to take a picture, it saw me and took off running. All I got was a small picture of it from far away, and a second blurry picture when I tried to zoom in on it.

The EPA suspects the cat had rabies due to its behavior.

No.

I love animals too, the are delicious.......

The biggest fallacy there is is that natural = safe. We enjoy long lives free of many struggles thanks to modern society removing a lot of the 100% natural things that used to kill us. Like rabies.

do you believe in God, Prag? I happen to believe He knew what He was doing when He created the earth and who are we to undermine His work by deciding which species should be allowed to continue to exist? We're supposed to be smart enough to figure out a way to coexist with other living things without systematically wiping out anything that becomes a nuisance.

with that being said, I believe in this case the cat was sick---either rabies or distemper--and the prudent thing to do was to dispatch it as quickly as possible

EVERYONE ELSE "SHADDUP"!!!!!! WE'RE NOT WORTHY

Mamma mia just had the best line of the day.

lol-agreed!

Yup...now people see why some people own guns, another reason as this article states.

I would say, 80% of the nations households has a handgun/rifle in it.

It's more like 35%, and falling.

But a car is just as deadly according to all you NRA supporters. Maybe his wife should have run it over with the car while he was holding it down with the crutch.

Ill? Cat is dead..picked on a gun owner wrong choice...POW!

Kota- you must be one of those poor rightards who think Democrats don't own guns. Sad.

Jim G, I agree. funny how all the hateful political comments on this thread have been initiated the rwnj's. I own 2, and just this past weekend I was at Cabelas looking at muzzleloaders. too bad an IQ test isn't a pre-requisite for gun ownership--2/3 of the gun lubbers out there wouldn't qualify

Yeah, let's kill all humans so the po' innocent li'l animals can have the world, and spend their days (and nights) killing and eating each other...

People who value the life of a wild, stupid, primitive animal over that of a human should be the first to volunteer to be exterminated.

Yeah after all the guy opened his garage.

I think they were feeding it, then tried to get closer to it. That's when it jumped on them when it felt threatened.

johhny boy, I haven't seen any bobcat's paying property taxes.

Jerryb...Jonathan didn't say kill all the humans. He didn't say he values the life of an animal over a human. Relax. You can still get to kill things. Don't be so trigger happy.

I'll bet they don't want the 'liberals' taking their guns.

Jonathan, do you still have a brain, or did voting for ohbumma take all your sanity?

Ban all rabid bobcats. They kill innocent people!

People kill innocent people. Therefore ban all people. <Rick's logic fail applied to another scenario.>

The Damn cat jumped him in a fraction of a second and clung to his face chewing like it was in a 3 stooges episode! I'd kill the thing with anything I could find...geez Jonathon, have you been smoking lavender??

elizabeth -

"a gun yes an assault weapon no"

What if there had been 20 bobcats...

and if the only thing available was an assault weapon, then by all means put it back in the safe and let the bobcat rip someone's face off. Hey Lizzy, where did you get "assault weapon"...all I saw was "handgun". I guess you've been conditioned.....

a gun yes an assault weapon no.

One can only imagine the mayhem an assault weapon would have caused in this situation,

I disagree with your comment. Apparently, none of us have automatic weapons, so each shot would have been sufficient in itself.