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dirtgirl_wt

urban legends and just plain ignorance...when to correct?

dirtgirl
16 years ago

I have to first apologize for being away so long. This forum has really been inactive lately but I mustn't point a finger since I haven't been adding much myself.

The last few weeks I have been getting a rash of e-mails about the usual DANGEROUS animals turning up here locally, and the stories are usually suspicious and formulaic, the animal attacking someone or being bravely fought off and killed. One such forward mentioned a cougar that was on a person's deck, supposedly salivating as it watched small children playing indoors. In every case I can usually turn up something on Snopes or elsewhere telling the real tale.

Sometimes the pictures are real, sometimes photoshopped, but the text that comes with them is usually blown way out of proportion or fabricated completely.

What makes it worse is that 99 % of the people who send these my way totally believe the stuff. There are enough misconceptions and fears about gators, cougars, snakes, and other 'deadly' animals without this junk being passed around. And what bothers me most is that our area of southern Illinois is currently undergoing a sort of transition as predators such as bobcats and an occasional cougar are making a return. THey sure won't be greeted with open arms as long as the baby-killer e-mails are still going around. My husband tells me that I should learn to be more cautious when I openly disagree with people who just don't know better, that it's better to be right BUT quiet and keep a friend than to always be corecting people. I know he is totally right, but when it comes to nature I just get exasperated that people are so gullible.

One of the e-mails that bothered me so badly was one where a deer hunter about 80 miles from here was in a deer stand and had a mountain lion pace back and forth under his tree, smelling him and trying to track him down ---that is HUNTING HIM. Of course, the (insert heavy sarcasm) besieged hunter did what any fearless manly hunter would do in such a situation, and blew the cat away . The photo with the text shows a man holding an incredibly huge dead cat in a bear hug and spreading a massive paw to demonstrate the incredible size of the animal.

THe actual story, I discovered , was a much different situation. According to Snopes Urban Legend pages, the cat was actually shot in the upper Northwest, (think it was Washington maybe?) by an experienced cat hunter who --get this--deliberately called the cat in either by baiting or a predator call ( I cannot recall which method.) There is a legal season there and this cat was an especially large individual. The Boone and Crockett club ( for gun-taken animals of large size) even mentioned it.

Not exactly the same story where the poor deer hunter was suddenly the hunted, but hey! I could introduce you all to at least a dozen of my neighbors right now who honestly think they see black panthers and mountain lions and chupacabres behind every fence post and every one of them barely escaped with their lives to hear them tell it. We don't need any more negative reinforcement.

I forwarded the snopes page right back to the friend who had sent me the St Louis cat hoax, and I have not heard from him since. I guess I need to learn a little temperance.

Or should I ???

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