“Pat Coleman, Clarkstown’s animal control officer, said the sightings have people’s imaginations running wild.”

What does that mean? People see things and go crazy? Really? We’ve been able to keep it surprisingly together, given that, haven’t we?

“If panthers or mountain lions were prowling around Rockland, she said, there would be evidence in the form of animal carcasses or worse.”

Hmmm. Wonder how many mountain lion kills get found in the wild, in places they are known to exist, in a decade? And what is “worse”? A mountain lion carcass that would make Pat look dumb?

“It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “This has been going on for too long for something bad not to have happened.”

She’s talking about humans. She’s right there. Mountain lions tend not to do “bad” things. Unless eat is bad.

“Cameras that were planted in Tallman Mountain State Park have picked up only raccoons and coyotes, she said.”

No photo, no animal. Wow. She gets paid to say stuff like this.

“Coleman suggests snapping a picture of the animal with a camera phone or regular camera and showing it to police.”

You have an equal chance of getting a wild moutain lion and a wild bigfoot on a camera phone. On any camera held by a casual photographer. Even in places where lions are confirmed. Only human-habituated critters will pose for an amateur.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if people didn’t hear ‘panther,’ they wouldn’t think they were seeing panthers,” she said. “People think they’re seeing something, but is it reliable? I don’t know.”

OK OK. I understand we’re not paying her to understand human nature. But people hear “bigfoot” all the time, and it doesn’t appear to have helped bigfoot’s existence any. People tend to report what they see. And one of those people above, even if he didn’t see a mountain lion, sure couldn’t have described one any better. As in, if he didn’t see a mountain lion, he was lying. Figure out why he would want to do that, and you’ve solved a real mystery.

We need to get these wildlife people and these “animal control” people out of the way. They’re not doing their jobs, says here.

I could be wrong, of course, so anybody out here can feel free to “enlighten” me.

Thanks for the report, Loren.