Helen Mcginnis at COUGAR RE-WILDING bringing more clarity to yesterdays Post regarding alleged Cougar attacks of horses in Quebec..............Helen rightly reminds that Cougars do not seek to risk life and limb attacking full grown horses ..............While we all hope that Quebec still harbors F. Concolor, the odds are that the horses that were hurt in this Canadian Province likely sustained their injuries in some way other than through an attack by a Cougar

From: Helen McGinnis <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.netTo: Meril, Rick
Sent: Sat Aug 20 05:24:27 2011
Subject: Alleged cougar attacks on horses in Quebec

Rick,

Frequently, when cougars are documented in an area of the Midwest, reports of alleged attacks on horses follow.  I expect we'll read about more of them in the Northeast.

I must have more than 20 such instances in our files.  Whenever photos are available, we (specifically Joe Lankalis) have determined that a cougar was not involved.

Cougars almost never attack adult horses, although they do attack and kill foals and miniature horses.   They would have to be very stupid to risk injuring themselves attacking an animal weighing about 10X more than they do.

Horses are easily frightened and can injure themselves running into barbed wire and other obstacles.
 

Helen