CALGARY – Flowers now mark the place where a cougar was shot by Fish and Wildlife officers Thursday morning.
Emotions run high as hate mail continues to pour in to wildlife officials.
“Way to go shooting that cougar, just had to kill the cougar, way to set the bar high for professionalism in your department,” says one anonymous email. There are hundreds more like it.
Officials shut down a section of road near the South Health Campus around 7 a.m.
The animal was shot and killed by Fish and Wildlife Officers, before being removed from the area.
Search and rescue expert Gordon Griffiths witnessed the shooting. He says, “this was a very large predator and one that is explosive and dangerous.”
Officers say they didn’t take the decision to terminate the cat lightly.
They maintain tranquilizers would have been ineffective because of the size and speed of the animal.
“It was right by the hospital entrance so officers had to act quickly to mitigate that public safety concern. It was believed in this case any attempt to tranquilize the animal could in fact heighten the public safety risk,” says Brendan Cox, a spokesperson for Alberta Fish and Wildlife.
Shannon Andersen took video of the cat being killed from inside the hospital. Her reaction spoke for thousands who later watched the clip online: “It’s just really sad to see an animal killed first-hand.”
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