Comments on: Maned Lion Prowls West Virginia

By: Dinahe

Dinahe — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 11:18:24 +0000

How are you so sure that this is even a real lion? My friend, a REAL shapeshifter (yes, they exist) who lives in that area is a lion. He’s just a regular shifter going out to get a meal, and YOU PEOPLE ARE HARASSING HIM!! “Let’s catch it in bear traps” they say, “Lets shoot it” they say. My friend has ALREADY BEEN SHOT! Would you like to be shot when you went out for a stroll?! If you can prove that it escaped from someone, fine. If anything, put a radio collar on him. If you find the collar has been taken off, which can only be done with human hands, then he is a shifter. At that point he is to be LEFT ALONE. (He is a small lion because you generally stay near your human weight.) Again, he is a person. Do NOT harm him!

By: scotsman

scotsman — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:33:48 +0000

Yeah Alligator -

I would agree with the power related connection. There was a lady in the south of England who owned big cats way back in the 60′s and 70′s but she had so many the police and wildlife authorities actually didn’t have an accurate count of how many there was. So when it came time to confiscate them from her she admitted to releasing them into the moors, they were caught and one was killed I think, the only thing is that is where most of the myths and sightings stem from because no-one knows for sure just how many she let go! But I think she just had an affinity for large cats, because she hand fed them and stuff. She had lions, tigers, pumas, panthers, jaguars all sorts.

Ofcourse she was your classic British eccentric, haha

By: Alligator

Alligator — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:15:33 +0000

Several years ago to my surprise, I discovered that a rural neighbor less than four miles from my house had a pair of full grown Bengal tigers, fully equipped. This guy also had quite a collection of motorized toys like Porsches, classic Mustangs, etc. I guess he was bored with those.

Another guy up on the Missouri/Iowa line a few years back had his own private zoo that included some big cats. He got raided as a suspected drug kingpin and most of his critters confiscated. He died of a heart attack or something like that before his case went to trial.

For some reason, many of the big time druggies seem to get into exotic pets. Some of them relocate to rural areas I guess they suppose the seclusion gives them a greater measure of security ie. detection time if the cops are on the way in. Of course, these guys are loaded and already doing stuff that will put them away a long time. So they have the connections, money and lack of concern that would make it easy for them to pick up these kinds of pets.

They’ve found full grown lions, etc. in New York City apartments. Often the pets of some gang kingpin. I guess they see some kind of association with the power of big cats?

By: squatchwatcher

squatchwatcher — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:48:53 +0000

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have used the term “hillbilly”. My apologies to anyone I may have offended by this. What I meant was that you don’t have to be a genius to be rich, and there are a lot of ignorant, dumb wealthy people out there.

By: halcyonicWV

halcyonicWV — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:17:31 +0000

Allow me to second Jeremy’s comment.

Anyway, very interesting, but I think it more likely the witness may have erred in both identification and estimation. Although, I suppose it’s possible if it is an escaped/abandoned animal.

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:39:51 +0000

Squatchwatcher,

As Scotsman notes, collecting exotic animals is generally a past time of wealthy elites, and THIS hillbilly resents the derisive tone of your post.

By: scotsman

scotsman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:36:07 +0000

$50 you say eh?? Thats very impressive! Not that I am condoning the buying and seeling of wild exotic animals but I would love to know how that whole auction actually came about. I was more thinking on the range of trapping it in the wild, getting it through customs by bribing people (as it is usually done) and transporting it to the required destination from there. All those things usually need to paid for and usually not your run of the mill average Joe can afford it.

By: Tabbercat8

Tabbercat8 — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:46:45 +0000

Scotsman, I believe you are probably right in most cases the price for a exotic cat might be expensive. But about 8 years ago a 17 year old girl in BC, Canada purchased a female african lion at an auction for $50. That lion ended up in a Wildlife Sanctuary in Ontario. So there are ways people can get the hands on exotics inexpensively. It would be a shame if this is what happened to this animal. The girl realized she couldn’t afford to get it declawed at a $100 per claw and tried to get a zoo to take it and no body wanted a female lion. It was by luck that the sanctuary was able to take it in.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:42:39 +0000

This did used to be a free country, and taming animals is what humans do. My aunt had pet racoons when she was a girl.

I was going to say maybe there is a very rare recessive gene in cougars that can produce mane. That they are more closely related to housecats might put that down, but the cats all seem to be able to interbreed, if not directly, then through an intermediary (due to size, not genes) so maybe it is possible.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:22:33 +0000

I was a little surprised at the estimated weight too. I suppose that while under stress and seeing something one did not expect to see, there could be a misjudgment in that regard. It doesn’t seem to me that the witness was in any condition to make a spot on accurate appraisal of the creature’s weight and people can be terrible at judging size or weight anyway. Adult male lions are typically anywhere from 330 to 500 pounds,(except the 600 pound bruiser “Alex” mentioned in the article. Jeez, that’s a big lion!) so under duress a small one could be roughly estimated at 300 pounds. Then again, the witness was a hunter and so I’d think he might possibly be more skillful at guessing a creature’s weight even though he may have no experience with lion’s. It also seems to me that most misjudgments by startled people EXAGGERATE the weight of what they see. Hmmmm. I guess we’ll just have to see what else comes up concerning these sightings.