Cougar suspected in attack on horse

Thoroughbred horse still uneasy weeks

after incident

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

LA SALLE -- Although it suffered an attack from someone or something more than a month ago, "Jumping Jimmy," Jim Bird's yearling thoroughbred is still very skittish.

The colt whinnied and neighed in a barn stall in the Wednesday afternoon heat as Geneva Iverson tried to calm it down.

Iverson recalled the unusual sound she heard that she thought came from a wooded area west of the farmhouse five weeks ago.

"I never heard such a screech before. It sounded like 10 tomcats fighting," Iverson said.

The yearling colt was in the three-sided pole barn by himself, isolated from the others when the horse suffered puncture wounds to its belly, rump, neck and hip. Several other horses were in box stalls when "Jumping Jimmy" was hurt.

Iverson thinks that a cougar might have attacked her horse.

"The horse must have jumped when it was bit on the neck, and the cat only got one fang into it," Iverson said. "Now the horse is afraid of everything and hard to hold still. He won't stay still in the pen where he was attacked. He just runs and runs and runs until I let him out."

Some of the marks on the horse are still visible.

Iverson said there are coyotes not far from the farm, but they would bite horses in the hindquarters instead of the neck.

"Cats go for the neck," Iverson said.

A couple weeks before the colt was hurt, the horses were startled one night, broke a fence post in a barn and dug up a large amount of dirt running around a pen.

Iverson said another unusual thing around the farm this summer is the lack of raccoons, woodchucks, skunks and other small game that were seen in other years.

"I think something cleaned them out," Iverson said.

This April, a rural Courtland family reported an unusual death of their goat and rabbits.

Tom Conroy, Southern Region Information Officer at the New Ulm DNR office said its a good bet there is or was a cougar in the area, but that the public should not be alarmed.

"Cougars are highly secretive animals that don't want contact with humans," Conroy said. "They usually go after rabbits, squirrels and livestock if the opportunity presents itself. We've had people regularly checking out unusual reports we've received."

Earlier this summer, Bloomington police shot and killed a 100-pound mountain lion after walkers on a popular trail came upon it and reported it was snarling, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The cat's attitude convinced officers to shoot it to death with a .223-caliber rifle from a distance of 90 feet.

The cat had a full set of claws and large canine teeth, something most private owners have removed.

That incident happened 1.5 miles from a spot near the Minnesota River in Savage where a Cargill employee took photos of a mountain lion early in April. Bloomington police has responded to 10 mountain lion sightings since 1999.

There are 40-60 credible cougar sightings in Minnesota each year retired Minnesota Department of Natural Resources specialist Bill Berg said.

Cougars are a protected species in Minnesota, meaning they cannot be hunted or trapped. There are no reports of cougars attacking humans in Minnesota, the DNR said.

Biologists believe that cougars in Minnesota wandered through from mountainous western states.

Cougars look like tan or orange house cats but are larger than dogs. Adults are 6-9 feet long and can weigh up to 200 pounds.

For more information, visit www.dnr.state.mn.us/snapshots/cougar.html