August 2004     

Stalked!
First By The Cat, Now By The 'Crats

By Jan Michael Jacobson

After videotaping a panther attacking a goat, the cat, later that evening, stalked me. But that was less of a danger to me than being stalked by the 'crats from the Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC). After I completed taping the attack, and saving the goat from another attack by the panther, I called the goat's owner, and we managed to get the goat into an emergency shelter for the rest of the night.

I then called a friend and colleague named Walter Pine, and talked about the tape and the situation. Walter is the Executive Director of the Center for Civil Rights Advocacy, a group working for truth and accountability in government. While Civil Rights advocates, rather than lawyers, they are very knowledgeable about bureaucratic behavior. Based on their experience with the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC), they explained how they believed the FWCC would act and the response of the FWCC to my videotape of the panther attack.

I was concerned about their predictions coming true, so I asked Walter Pine to come down. We feared that the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission would attempt to arrest me on a trumped up felony-level charge of some sort or other, in order to obtain my tape, silence my communications about the situation, and prevent further writing of articles, and most importantly - prevent a news conference about the panther killing Jack Shealy's goats. He drove five hours, and events proved him all-too-right. The FWCC agent arrived, and said just what Walter had predicted. When he got to the part about "animal cruelty" charges, I refused to talk to him any further.

The intimidation attempts were now in the open. But let's return to the campground and the scene I faced when I arrived. Please remember that by the time I arrived, the panther had killed fourteen of Jack's 17 or 18 goats, and two of his emu. I was shown the last emu, dragged less than 100 feet from the back fence of Jack's pasture, uneaten, with flies beginning to congregate on the carcass.

I told Jack that it was my opinion that the cat would return that night for a fresh meal, rather than eating the somewhat-rotted emu. He agreed to show me the area where he had been advised by both the FWCC and the Big Cypress National Preserve officials to keep the animals. It was a small compound formed by two sides of his steel building, and a fence along the third side.

The fencing was from four or five feet high to a stretch of perhaps eight foot high fencing. But the gate connecting the fencing with the building wall was only five feet high. My advice to Jack was that the panther would return that night, enter the compound, and then a killing frenzy would occur, and many, if not all, animals would be killed.

Knowing that the officials had refused to do anything, and being aware that the agency 'crats had invoked the Endangered Species Act to forbid Jack from defending his property or animals, the only option was to place a goat outside, and use a tether to keep it from running into the dark part of the pasture where the other 14 goats had been killed, and hope to keep the panther from entering the compound, and thus prevent a killing frenzy.

We hoped that the cat would show itself sufficiently to be video-taped so that we could determine if it was wearing a radio collar. If the marauding panther was wearing a radio collar, it would show that the agencies knew all along, that the cat was there, and that it was killing Jack's goats on Jack's property.

Why did I not stay in the compound to prevent the predicted killing frenzy? For the same reason that the 'crats didn't stay in the compound, that's why.

Because being in such close proximity to a panther in a killing frenzy, meant that I probably would be killed along with the other animals. Given the historical fact that most of the African "White Hunters" considered a big cat at close quarters to be of the highest risk, I decided not to risk such a "close encounter of the killing kind."

That the agency 'crats refused to take such a risk belies their position that "the panther is not a risk to humans." Note that the 'crat is not going to take any risk with their precious skins - but their callous disregard for the citizens is all-too-clear by the contrast between what they say, and what they do (in this case; what they refused to do).

FWCC officers, wearing body armor, carrying pistols, and shotguns, were unwilling to stay in the small cage which they recommended the land owner keep his animals in. But "the panther is not a risk to humans," say the Agency persons.

I also should mention here that the armed, armored, FWCC officers demanded that I take off my handgun which I was carrying with the land owner's permission. The nice officers were willing to let me risk being turned into panther food with no way to defend my own life - but they were both armored and armed.

Were they there to protect human life and property as the sign "Statewide Law Enforcement" on their vehicles trumpeted, or their "endangered" panther - or their endangered agency cash cow?

While I was able to predict the behavior of the panther, both that night, and the fact that it would return (two nights later, the killing frenzy did happen, just as I predicted) - what the tape showed was nothing that I could have imagined.

The tape shows the panther first attacking the goat, clawing and biting it, nearly succeeding in dragging the goat to its knees, and then the goat escapes the claws holding it and backs away slowly. What then happened has both astounded and shocked me, and all who have seen the tape.

As the goat backs away from the panther's paws, claws, and jaws, the panther does not attack the slowly retreating goat. Instead, the panther uses its front feet on the rope to restrain the retreating goat! It does not attempt to leap on the goat - which is only a few yards away! No natural prey drags a rope. Only livestock or pets have ropes. The panther clearly knew that holding the rope would control the goat.

As the goat reaches the end of the rope, the panther stands alongside the taut rope, and does not attack the goat. Remember, this is supposedly a wild panther. Big cats press an attack, and will not allow an animal any chance to escape. But somehow, somewhere, the panther had learned that a goat on a rope couldn't escape.

The panther stands looking into the distance as it surveys its surroundings, then turns its head to the rear, looks around carefully, swings its head back forward and licks its face clean of goat blood, then again checks the area ahead of it (where the compound with all the other animals is located).

Where did the panther learn to eat goat on a rope?

After over 20 seconds of leisurely scanning the area, the cat walks around the goat and leaps on it again. For those who think predators kill quickly, think again. Not all kills are from spinal bites. Strangulation is a slow, drawn-out process, as the tape shows.

If you believe that the prey animal is so deeply in shock from the predator's attack that it feels no pain, I suggest you listen to the goat's screams. For nearly two minutes, the drawn-out process went on. This is what happened to the previous 14 goats and the two emu.

Only because this animal was tethered was the panther unable to drag the goat off into the darkness of the rest of the pasture, over the fence, and eat Jack's pet goat.

In this case, the panther dropped the goat and moved off a few dozen yards where my camcorder could no longer record anything but a dark cat shape in the dark. I moved the camcorder back to the goat because I knew the panther would return to the goat shortly.

As I zoomed in on the goat, I saw movement. The goat's rib cage rose and fell - the goat had been mauled and clawed, thrown around by a throat bite, been rolled over numerous times, and dragged by the same throat bite. But the goat was still breathing! And it began to bleat in a low, weak, call, which I knew would summon the panther.

What to do? Should I shoot the panther? I had a 12 gauge with 00 buckshot in it by the tripod, and a revolver in a holster on my belt. And all this predation is taking place only a leap or two from me. But the panther was only a pawn in this game.

The real problem was faulty premises which led to perverse interpretations of the Endangered Species Act. Shooting the panther might help Jack and his animals. But it would do little to redress the underlying faulty premises which have created the nation-wide debacle - which the Endangered Species Act has become.

Should I let the cat attack and finally kill the goat? Clearly, it seemed too cruel for me to stand by and allow the panther to kill the goat, which was still barely breathing, though its cries were getting stronger by the moment. And there was the fact that this was not my goat - and Jack had precious few of his pets left.

So, as the panther charged again, when he neared the goat, some forty feet from me, I managed to startle the panther with a sudden movement from above him, a loud shout, and slapping my hand on the flat fiberglass side of the RV which made a sound like a gunshot. The panther left, for what turned out to be a very short while.

Later on, when I thought about the fact that the panther was only a leap and a half from me, I realized that I had a personal problem with the Endangered Species Act.

But all this is not just about a predatory panther cat trying to protect a kill. The real danger turned out to be the 'crat, who was not defending a kill, but rather a profoundly-flawed program, which employed a host of 'crats.

Now we have arrived at the essence of this article. The 'crats were willing, no, make that eager, to arrest me on any reason, so that they could get the tape. They will defend a failed program to the very last paycheck.

The bureau-scientists knew that one of the largest sources of panther deaths was adult panther killing younger panther. To a biologist, this is clear and unambiguous evidence that the panther have no room to establish territories sufficiently large to support a panther. Re-introductions are not needed, as there are already too many panther. They do, after all, breed like cats.

What is called for by the agency scientists' own data showing adult panther killing younger is a reduction in the panther population - a hunting season on panther is overdue.

Historically, large bodied predators like panther and bear were able to be tolerated by man, because such predators were very retiring. Being predators, they understand death, as they must kill every few days at the least, or starve. When predators were hunted, and when the woods were filled with hunters, predators knew to stay out of sight.

Those predators that didn't learn to stay away from all men, were soon shot. That method of predator management worked, cost the tax-payers nothing, and allowed predators to develop behavior mechanisms that were acceptable to the top predator - Man.

With the rise of "environmentalism", forms of pre-civilization beliefs were revived, and animism and other forms of nature worship were made de facto laws of the land with the Wilderness Act of 1964, and the Endangered Species Act. Jack is fortunate, so far, only his animals are being sacrificed on the altar of environmentalism.

But the 'crats don't hesitate to sacrifice all who disagree with them. When they find their basic assumptions being challenged, they feel they are free to do anything to defend their agency premises and the jobs based on such faulty premises. Thus they tried to silence me with the threat of a bogus criminal charge. This would allow seizure of my computer, video equipment, video archives, etc.

They would also be able to force me to post a heavy bail, and incur heavy legal expenses to defend against a case which they knew in advance they were unlikely to win. But they would have a chance to silence me, damage me financially, and hope to discredit me. Thanks to Walter Pine, and his Center For Civil Rights Advocacy, the 'crats failed, I am still free, and you have had an opportunity to read this article.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I, and many other scientists and educators, have been subjected to such agency abuse. This present situation is a continuation of a prevailing pattern of prejudice, and malignant animosity, amongst the agencies involved in the "Everglades Restoration."

From a past Department of Interior Asst. Secretary who said "they can speak their mind, but not on public land" and "they can speak their mind, just not on Park Service land" to the present case, where the FFWC is trying to silence free speech on private land, and muzzle both the press and the Internet. The pattern of Constitutional violations is clear.

The agencies are following a pattern of "Agenda Uber Alles," which is all-too-familiar to those who lived under socialism in Europe and the old USSR.

The cold, hard facts are clear in the Everglades. Everglades National Park is unambiguous proof that government ownership of land (socialism, according to the dictionary) is not perfectible. After over fifty years of government ownership and central planning, the only vertebrate population to increase on the lands of Everglades National park has been the population of ParkPersons.

Since any critter that could walk, swim, or fly, left the socialized lands of Everglades National Park, it is safe to say that socialism is acceptable to neither man nor beast.

It is long past time for America to reject the socialization of America, downsize the agencies, and privatize the agency lands before any more habitat degradation occurs.

The assumption that government ownership is the best protection for land is simply not true. Not only does socialism (government ownership of land is socialism) destroy habitats, it inevitably results in degradation of the Republic, and the Constitution.

The behavior of the "Everglades Restoration" agencies and 'crats, is proof that President Reagan was right when he said, "being a little socialist is like being a little pregnant." Shut down the failed Everglades Restoration before it further damages America's land, further violates the citizen's rights, and proves to be the "prodigious waste" that Dr. Earl R. Rich predicted it would become.

Editor's note: Just hours before press time, Jan reported that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is finally taking some action. After an officer found the cat only half a leap behind him one night at the campground. They trapped the cat, and are moving it to another Florida location.

Jan Michael Jacobson is Director of the Everglades Institute.