Teen Gets Revenge On Mountain Lion That Killed His Goat
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 6 months ago
CUSTER | Last week, a young mountain lion wreaked havoc on Lila Streff’s life, killing one of her goats, a duck, a house cat and, judging by the amount of feathers scattered in its deadly wake, a chicken. But thanks to her 14-year-old son, the mountain lion didn’t get away with it.
That Wednesday morning began with a gruesome discovery: a bloodied goat lie dead on the ground behind Streff’s house, 10 miles south of Custer near Pringle. The owner of Black Hills Goat Dairy, single mother of six, and grandmother to nine, soon discovered it was one of the young bucks she keeps pastured behind her home.
For better than a decade, Streff has milked 38 others, as well as eight dairy cows, making deliveries to Custer on Tuesdays and Rapid City on Fridays. But this was the first animal she had lost to a hungry mountain lion.
“We can see the goats right off the back porch, and we saw one lying on the ground back there,” she said on Tuesday. “We went right out and looked, and it was dead. We also saw a trail of destruction from the chicken coop with a dead cat, a dead duck and a bunch of chicken feathers.”
Streff said she feared the mountain lion would return for more.
“It’s unnerving because I really have a smorgasbord of animals here,” she said. “It’s like Golden Corral. If you don’t stop it, you’ll be at the mercy of the lions. I also have grandchildren out back occasionally, and I was worried.”
Streff credits “fearless” Isabella, one of her four Great Pyrenees, with chasing off the mountain lion before it could feast on its victim. While praising her prized 80-pound dog, Streff said she was still saddened at the loss of one of her goats.
“We’ve seen Isabella get in a fight with a lion before,” she said. “She’s fearless, and she’s not afraid of them. But this is the first animal we’ve lost in 10 years.”
Streff reported the incident to the state Game, Fish & Parks Department and said she and her two children whom she home-schools waited around most of the day for a conservation officer to show up. And they kept watch out back lest the mountain lion return for its kill.
After a long, sad day, Streff’s youngest child, 14-year-old Dalton, who fancies himself a hunter, told his mother he was going to go sit in the backyard and await the return of the beast that had killed their young goat. The 5-foot-10, 130-pound, brown-haired teenager, who had previously completed a hunter’s safety course, brought with him his 30.06-caliber Remington rifle he won last year in an NRA raffle.
Lacking a proper blind in which to shelter himself from approaching critters, Dalton opted instead for a Little Tikes playhouse conveniently located in the backyard. There on a chair he sat, scanning the surrounding woodlands for the killer cat.
His mother was skeptical.
“He decided he was going to go sit out there until 7, when he had to do milking chores,” Streff said. “He said he’d go back out again at 5:30 in the morning if it hadn’t returned that night. But even though it was a possibility, none of us expected the cat to come back that evening.”
A half-hour later, as the sun began to set behind the Ponderosa pines, Streff heard a single, staccato gunshot pierce the silence of their remote Black Hills home.
“So I ran outside, and Dalton threw his arms in the air and screamed, ‘I got it,'” Streff said.
Read the rest at Rapid City Journal. I think’s its awesome that this young man is home-schooled. I also think it’s awesome he got the dangerous critter. A man can’t let a dangerous animal destroy his belongings and endanger his family any more than he can let a man do it. Despite the title of the article, I don’t think this has a thing to do with revenge.
As for fancying himself a hunter, I don’t think so. This young man has guts, and a lot of patience to boot. He doesn’t fancy himself a hunter, he knows he’s a hunter.
On October 9, 2017 at 7:46 am, Fred said:
“A half-hour later, as the sun began to set behind the Ponderosa pines”
Cats are Crepuscular hunters. Leaving a fresh kill to never return? Nope, as the light changes it comes back to it’s meal. When out west or if you live there remember that cats hunt at dusk and dawn. And if you keep house cats you may notice that this is a time of high activity for them and a good play time. And that’s why they wake you up 15 minuets before sunrise every day. It’s time to get up and go hunt.
On October 9, 2017 at 10:13 am, Blake said:
The woman is smart. Great Pyrenees are bred to look after animals and are big enough to chase off a lot of predators. And yet are some of the biggest goofs when it comes to people. (We’ve owned a couple and recommend them. Be warned, though, they are large, eat a lot and tend to bark)
As for the young man, excellent job. Hard to believe a youngster showed the patience needed to get the job done.
On October 9, 2017 at 1:59 pm, Longbow said:
God bless him. The young Man did what a young man is supposed to do. He defended home and hearth and he did it with a rifle. He did it just as he should when ANY varmint or predator comes a calling… even the two legged variety.