Escaped Tiger Killed in WVA
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 2nd, 2008
I must say, this wave of felid deaths seems beyond coincidence. Received, another escapee felid shooting report.
John Lutz sends this along,
“Back during the summer of 2006, a ‘maned lion’ was reported in southern Mononglahia National Forest and Greenbriar County, West Virginia. Yet WV DNR officials made a point of downplaying the sighting, claiming it was a ‘misidentification of another species.’ Perhaps it wasn’t after all & wildlfie officials are NOT telling all they know.”
Lutz included the following new report, which he received via Todd Lester, for December 2, 2008.
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The owner of a tiger on the loose in Pocahontas County put the animal down Monday afternoon, said Hoy Murphy, spokesman for the state Division of Natural Resources.
David Cassell of Cass found the tiger and killed it, Murphy said. He was not sure where or how the animal was killed Monday. He was waiting for a conservation officer’s report.
While Murphy said the snowmaking crew at Snowshoe Mountain Resort saw the big cat on Monday morning, resort spokeswoman Laura Parquette said the tiger had not been seen on Snowshoe’s property.
“They’re looking for it in Cass, on the other side of the mountain,” Parquette said.
Cassell, who works at Mountain Lodge on Snowshoe Mountain, was trying to find the animal and tranquilize it, Murphy said earlier in the day. Security personnel at Snowshoe were also looking for the animal, he said.
“We have a conservation officer on his way there now. …Normally this isn’t the kind of wildlife we deal with,” Murphy said Monday afternoon.
Cassell had a permit for the animal, he said.
In May 2006, an Asian brown bear owned by Cassell escaped into the wild after someone cut the lock to its enclosure. The 400-pound bruin has not been seen since.
Source: Runaway tiger killed in Pocahontas County.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I have this sneaking suspicion that Chinese apothecaries are somehow involved.
A few years back there was an escaped tiger roaming around Simi Valley, California that wound up being shot.
Can you imagine hiking in the hills just north of Los Angeles and unexpectantly encountering a 400+ pound tiger?!
Not a good week for cats