Been there and done that too many times Mike. I had one of the conservation officers telephone me last spring saying they had received a report of a mountain lion from a lady out her window, across the road bedded in some brush--it had a tail and everything! He had had one of the local lion hunters come look for tracks in the dirt and they couldn't find any, so I told him I'd bring a couple dogs and they would show us any tracks that were there. Not a strike, nor a track was found and I told the game warden it was probably a fox..........
I had another conservation officer telephone me to come run down and kill a lion in a state park a couple years back, which was early June. I'd just returned from a bear hunt and was tying out dogs when the phone rang around 5:00 PM.. The report was a lion laying by some campers and I thought yea! But that report was accurate and that lion is dead.
The Ute Tribe called me years back cause they had a bear come through town, and there was a track and several 55 gallon trash drums turned over. I can remember helping my dogs over fences and having yard dogs confront me at about every turn--chows, mutts and more mutts. It looked like the country was full of yard and fighting dogs and I was lucky to get through that deal with all my hounds in tack.
Then there was the Russian Olive tree bear that was hit on the highway and supposedly dead or wounded down on the Duchesne River. Two conservation Officers called me on that one around 1:00 PM, and I started to ask them if they really believed there was a hound in the west that could start a bear track at 2:00 PM near the end of June that had been hit in the night. Luckily, Ike started barking after we got down along the river and they jumped the bear pretty quick. Instead of dead, that bear jumped two fences on Highway 40 and took my hounds across traffic with me running behind them to pick up the pieces. One dog did not make the tree and I had her beep at the highway, so I cut the ditch banks looking for her body after the run--that was my LionHeart dog. Then I noticed a rancher down near his cattle on the adjacent property and pulled in there to find he had my LionHeart bitch tied to the corral with rope. He told me those dogs came running through his cows barking and he grabbed her on the way past. Well the other neighbor told me he watched the bear jump the fence with those dogs hot on it's butt, so the cowboy just missed seeing the bear I guess. Again I was lucky and did not get any dogs killed.....
http://www.ingramwildlife.com/russianolivebear.wmv
I look back at the public service that I've done for the Fish and Game and others and wonder how many of them ever worried about the situation they put me and my dogs in??????? I had one fish and game person tell me he thought they were doing me a favor by calling me, and I told him if he didn't understand that I was donating my time, dogs, money and effort to help them and the public to never call me again. Yea, a guy puts three or four dogs worth ten to twenty thousand dollars down on a track for the fish and game--puts them at risk from traffic and some rancher that may have shot them thinking they were chasing cows cause he didn't see the bear--and the State of Utah was dong me a favor?? Now I don't mind donating my time, money and hounds but a the people who received that donation should at lease understand it was a donation and not something they gave to me. As a good buddy always says, "you gotta love it!"
And those are only a few of dozens of stories I have about the public predator problems..when I write a book (and I will do that) I will probably donate a chapter to time spent with ADC, the fish and game and others.......
ike
I knew damn well that the guy had never telephoned me once in his life and was full of shit, and then told him that he couldn't afford me and my dogs...........