Shame on the sheriff for his actions; certainly a miserable display of law enforcement backed up by an equally challenged attempt at forming intelligent thoughts.

I came here looking for information about cougar sightings in my area(SE Wisconsin). And am quite disgusted by some of the statements made about the police officer in the comments here…specifically from Kittenz.

Kittenz for some reason you sound like my former room mate with all her self proclaimed intelligence but no common sense. You may be an “expert” in felines as you claim…but that officer is a Police Officer who is trained in LAW enforcement not Animal Control. He has a sworn duty to protect and serve(the U.S. Constitution not the citizens as popularly believed). He is trained in making decisions in circumstances YOU will not face while sitting in front of your computer.

Yes he it is a shame that beautiful animal was killed, but it never should have been there in the first place. IF anyone is to blame is the piece of filth who thought it was right to own an exotic and beautiful animal. Wild animals belong in the wild.

I myself think he made the best decision he possibly could. I say this because I constantly find myself telling my nieces and nephews what I was told about animals(domestic and wild alike) “just because it looks friendly doesn’t mean it is, animals are animals and that doesn’t change…if an animal approaches you and you don’t know it…walk away”. The reason I tell them this, is because animals use instinct and not cognitive abilities(I will accept any proof they do if you can show my scientific proof). Yes some have had their instincts manipulated to be domesticated to a point. But any animal can and will turn feral. Animals of any size can cause bodily harm. I know this because I had a domestic rabbit bite me when I was a baby and had to have my fingertip amputated.

AH and now on to red_pill_junkie:
Yes tasers and less-than-lethal rounds are out and about in the possession of law enforcement officers and security forces….and they are trained in using reasonable force based on threat. But when in a split second decision you have no time to grab your taser and hope to god you hit an animal(which tasers are NOT designed for use on). I wouldn’t be surprised if the same people criticizing the officer for shooting it would be if he had used his taser and it had received severe nerve damage from a 50,000volt electrical shock?

Finally:
Let animals roam free. Wild animals belong in the wild. I respect animals for their beauty, but value human life. My neighbor has a rottweiler and she lets it out on a flimsy cable meant for a 35lb dog. If that dog were to get loose and maul one of my loved ones I’d want the owner held responsible because it would be 100% preventable. yet like so many other people in this world my neighbor lacks the common sense or responsebility to get past her feelings about her pet which she summed up by saying,”oh he’s never hurt anyone before don’t be worried”. But didn’t the owners of the dogs that killed that lady in new york say the same thing?

The bottom line is none of us were there. The owner is responsible. And common sense has become almost non-existent online.

Mind you, that species shouldn’t be free to wander Neosha either, but rather let loose in a more native habitat. And the poor cat should never have been a pet in the first place, of course, which makes everyone involved here guilty of some error in judgment, not just the shooter.

I stick by my guiding principle, which has so far held true all these years- Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. I’m not going to wish ill upon the cop, even if I do think he acted in error. He didn’t know any better, and even if he should have, fear overruled it. I don’t think he wanted to see something die, although there are people like that out there, make no mistake.

I don’t bash hillbillies and make generalizations about them. I’m a hillbilly and proud of it!

That does not change my opinion of this situation. The officer did make a split-second decision - a wrong one.

With all the millions of dollars invested in the production of deadly weapons, wouldn’t it be sensible to use a portion of all that money to devise effective non-lethal weapons capable of stunning and/or immovilizing a potentially dangerous target? Think of all the lives that could be spared, and I’m not talking about ANIMALS only. Yes I know there have been taser guns for some time now, and other gadgets in the works (like that fancy ray gun developed to control large crowds) but the budget they get is laughable compared with other DARPA projects.

Come one people, let’s devise a phaser weapon, and put it on “stun” mode!