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Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 08:52 am
A bobcat incident in Pasco County:
Dale Rippy, 62, a quick-thinking Vietnam veteran, choked to death a growling bobcat that lunged at him from his back porch.
Pasco County officials praised Rippy for his quick thinking. ‘‘If he let the cat go, we would have had more victims,’’ said Denise Hilton, animal services manager for Pasco County Animal Control.
I dread the comments. On the one hand, you’ll have your bobcat-control advocates demanding further bobcat restrictions. On the other, we’ll see the usual bobcat nuts arguing that if more citizens were armed with bobcats they could have taken down the bobcat with their own bobcats. Then the predictable dispute over crime rates in concealed bobcat states breaks out …
- ..and opines about how great bobcat tastes.Posted by aaron_ on 2007 06 20 at 12:09 PM • permalink
- If the National Bobcat Association had been able to push through legislation allowing for the purchase of “semi-auto” bobcats, (for home defense only mind you), this would never have happened, and Tim that business about concealed carry is a crock, have you ever had a bobcat down your shorts, huh? well have you?Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 20 at 12:12 PM • permalink
- In Ohio we use Doberman control as an anti-bobcat measure. It keeps them confined to the shuberry, where Dobermans are not allowed to go. Bobcats learn their place, only coming out to capture a songbird occasionally.
- Yeah but would Dale Rippy have been able to handle these two ferals?Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 20 at 12:16 PM • permalink
- Well, it’s Florida—we’re allowed to use bobcats to defend ourselves. I think.Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 20 at 12:17 PM • permalink
- He did what? Without even talking to the bobcat? Maybe this cat just couldn’t help himself—he’s a product of an oppressive system that is continually disprespecting the rights of bobcats to lunge.
It’s that war-mongering Bush’s fault. Or possibly Howard’s. Where the heck is Pasco County? I bet this kind of thing wouldn’t happen in Paco county.
Posted by tabitharuth on 2007 06 20 at 12:18 PM • permalink
- Polite folk just don’t point bobcats at each other.Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 20 at 12:19 PM • permalink
- During the war we Brits all kept a single bobcat in our cellars. If Gerry had managed to invade our shores, we knew that Johnny Civilian had one last-ditch surprise up his sleeve for him.Posted by ThinAndBritish on 2007 06 20 at 12:20 PM • permalink
- Maybe we could start a “dialogue” with the bobcats, by understanding their grievances and emphasizing through a series of workshops their complaints and issues we could become as one.
Or we could just shoot them if they come near us….
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 20 at 12:22 PM • permalink
- A bobcat hide rug would intrigue my cats. The question is, would they take it as a message to behave themselves or else, or would they simply be satisfied that another rival was out of the picture?Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 20 at 12:33 PM • permalink
- I was a bobcat in Cub Scouts. Nobody tried to choke me until I discovered cigarettes and quit. Was about the time I burned down that swamp, if I recall.Posted by Gary from Jersey on 2007 06 20 at 12:36 PM • permalink
- PS: the Herald seems to have moved the article (I hate their website), but if you search their archives for “bobcat” you’ll find the story.
Remember children: if they outlaw bobcats, only outlaws will have bobcats. Um…
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 20 at 12:36 PM • permalink
- Too bad Mr. Rippy didn’t strangle this particular bobcat.Posted by David Crawford on 2007 06 20 at 01:23 PM • permalink
- #17 Hey now, let’s not go judging bobcats. If one of them is “rabid” then that’s its personal choice (or maybe it’s genetic—I get this confused all the time). The point is any bobcat has the right to be rabid if it feels that way and we should celebrate its diversity, rather than oppress it in some sort of capitalist opressive system that demands conformity of “unrabidness.”
- Whoa, did Mr. Rippy choke one of these suckers? He must be one powerful dude!Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 20 at 02:54 PM • permalink
- As they say in these parts, you can have my bobcat when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.Posted by cobalt blue on 2007 06 20 at 03:10 PM • permalink
- This is clearly a hate crime. Mr. Rippy is guilty of specie-ism and killing a bobcat with disabilities.
The proper response was to call in a Certified Bobcat Analyst for a Functional Behavioral Analysis. Upon identifying the root causes of the bobcat’s behavior, a plan of Positive Behavioral Supports was to be implemented.
- No, bobcats don’t kill men – men kill bobcats, using, er, other bobcats if they have them or just their bare hands if they don’t!Posted by robert speirs on 2007 06 20 at 04:31 PM • permalink
#24 TRJ, your ‘suckers’ are the only kind of bobcat I have ever seen in Australia. Are Florida bobcats different?
Maybe. But then, I’m hardly an expert on Florida fauna. ;-P
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 20 at 05:02 PM • permalink
- Yep, Rabies changes the whole equation. Nasty disease Rabies. do a Gigablast or Kartoo on “rabies” for some gruesome information.
And pray Mr. Rippey isn’t allergic to the vaccine.
Posted by mythusmage on 2007 06 20 at 05:55 PM • permalink
- You’ll have to prize my bobcat from my cold dead hands.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 06 20 at 06:46 PM • permalink
- These constant bobcat attacks are a great menace to society. I demand that the government immediately introduce a Bobcat Patrol. Wont someone think of the children?Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 06 20 at 10:20 PM • permalink
- Dammit, the anti-bobcat types will be all over this incident. First the Cougar Ban of ‘78, then the Great Lynx Seizure of ‘93, and now this. Damned cat-grabbers.
At least they’ll never get my ocelot, as it’s unregistered.
Posted by Blue State Sil on 2007 06 20 at 11:13 PM • permalink
- Was it a native born bobcat, or an illegal alien bobcat?Posted by SwampWoman on 2007 06 20 at 11:26 PM • permalink
- Yes, but what were the ‘root causes’ of this alleged bobcat attack…?Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 06 21 at 03:34 AM • permalink
That’s not too much bigger than a housecat.
Ever seen the claws and teeth on a bobcat? Plus they are MUCH stronger than a housecat.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 21 at 01:06 PM • permalink
- #44,
Hmmm, good point. My gf actually gave up washing our kittens after the second trip to the emergency room, and they were only 5-7 lbs. (I was against the whole project, I just laughed and pointed out they wash each other every morning anyway.)
I guess it was pretty impressive, it’s just that you see the headline “Man strangles bobcat” and then you find out it only weighed 25 lbs, and its a bit disillusioning. It’s like discovering that when Davy Jones killed that bear with just his knife, it was actually a 40-lbs bear cub.
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