Should I try and kill this bobcat?

[The Buffest Orpington]

People should do whatever they need to do in their own situation. I don't judge if someone wants to get rid of all predators
that come to their property. I have solved my problem for the moment. I am super happy the rabbits are disappearing as they are so destructive to all my shrubs and flowers. I can't stand the foxes around here. Fortunately distemper and mange has taken care of a lot of that population. Although a good shot is probably more merciful than dying of distemper.

I understand completely, and my last post wasn't directed at you. Glad to hear your plants are doing better, but sorry to hear about all the distemper - foxes are beautiful creatures too, and no animal should face that fate.

 

[muddy75]

Yes. Shoot it and all the other ones that come. They are not on any endangered list.

Still need to check state laws and dnr……in indiana, still protected and highly illegal to take a bobcat

 

[mowin]

Curious - then what do you do with them? Relocation is illegal in some areas. Relocation can make them someone else's problem, or puts them at greater risk of death being in an unfamiliar territory

Pics

Still need to check state laws and dnr……in indiana, still protected and highly illegal to take a bobcat

Really,? Even one that's actively killing livestock?
Link???

 

[The Buffest Orpington]

Still need to check state laws and dnr……in indiana, still protected and highly illegal to take a bobcat

Checked here in Maine. Bobcats aren't protected if they are attacking your livestock, period. 12 MRSA § 12401.

 

[muddy75]

Really,? Even one that's actively killing livestock?
Link???

It would need to be reported to dnr as all sightings are technically to be reported. I will have to find the link for the exact wording. We’ve been trying to get a season legalized for a few years now and they won’t do it. I reported a neighborhood sighting in 2019 when CO came to inspect our property for my gamebird permit as 1 crossed the highway in broad daylight

 

[muddy75]

It would need to be reported to dnr as all sightings are technically to be reported. I will have to find the link for the exact wording. We’ve been trying to get a season legalized for a few years now and they won’t do it. I reported a neighborhood sighting in 2019 when CO came to inspect our property for my gamebird permit as 1 crossed the highway in broad daylight

 

[muddy75]

Checked here in Maine. Bobcats aren't protected if they are attacking your livestock, period. 12 MRSA § 12401.

I didn’t see your location posted….good that you checked

 

[mowin]

We call our neighbor who is an Alabama State Game Warden.

It would need to be reported to dnr as all sightings are technically to be reported. I will have to find the link for the exact wording. We’ve been trying to get a season legalized for a few years now and they won’t do it. I reported a neighborhood sighting in 2019 when CO came to inspect our property for my gamebird permit as 1 crossed the highway in broad daylight

Not here. Kill on sight. And that's what I'll continue to do regardless of the backlash from those that believe I'm wrong and should be punished.

 

[allenw]

They are Apex. What regularly preys on them?

Cat it's what's for dinner. Bobcats are a notch above your housecats, which they will kill and eat, on the food chain.

 

[Genene]

These are all value judgments that say more about your own biases than about predators, farming, or livestock. If the bobcat is a "beautiful apex predator," then that makes me a beautiful apex predator++. The bobcat lives exclusively by killing other creatures. If I want to "secure my birds" by killing a killer, then that's my prerogative. We are a part of the food web, not somehow apart from and beneath it. If I want to free range my birds and kill every predator that tries to kill my animals, then so be it.

I'm not saying that's what I'll do, but I sure don't appreciate your moralizing as if bobcats are somehow morally superior to farmers or birds. We all have an equal right to live.

I’m not moralizing the Bobcat. I’m just appalled sometimes at the arrogance of people who think they can let a prey animal free range & because they are “pets” of humans the predators are supposed to ignore the food source or be killed.