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PESHAWAR, store July 11: Police commandos on Monday shot dead a leopard which reportedly killed six women in northwestern Pakistan, order officials said. They lured the leopard into a forested area with a caged goat and then sprayed the cat with bullets when it fell for the trap, salve said Feroz Shah, a senior police officer in Abbottabad.
“Police commandos fired 15 bullets to kill the leopard,†Shah told AFP.
The big cat was killed about 200 yards (metres) from the spot where it was thought to have mauled a woman on Friday, he said.
“We are 100 per cent sure it is the same leopard,†Shah said, without specifying how.
The leopard was blamed for fatal attacks on six women who had gone to collect firewood from the mountainous region during the last two weeks.
Shah said the authorities dispatched the commando team over the weekend to hunt down the animal and also warned people to stay away from the forest.
Source: Dawn Newspaper July 12, 2005
http://dawn.com/2005/07/12/nat18.htm
What is even sadder is that the wildlife department allowed the authorities to kill the leopard.
Wildlife department could use tranquilizer Guns.
But do they have tranquilizer guns with them???
I assume so, because according to the BBC report:
“As well as traps, large numbers of policemen armed with tranquilisers had been deployed.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4672125.stm
SHOOT FIRST, THINK LATER
It is to the detriment of Pakistan that the country is losing its natural heritage through hysteria and bad planning. If a Pakistani commando team was sent to deal with one leopard, it couldn’t have been a problem to tranquilise it and assert that it was indeed this animal that made the killings. Secondly, the animal could have been taken to a remoter area and released or an alternative solution thought. Shoot first, think later before it’s too later.
I Think the wild life authorities need to be trained in handling wild life and should not get scared and start shooting at an animal. The rest of the world is preserving its wild life where as we are going around killing them. I think the authorities should perform investigations on the women who were killed as their families never let autopsies be performed on them so it is very likely that they could have been murdered and the blame put on the poor leopards.
well done ! but why they did not use trancolizers?
Wildlife department could have been a bit more humane at killing the accused leopard. It does not take that many bullets to kill an animal. Overall I think they did the right thing putting down the animal because once an animal has tasted human flesh it will keep on attacking humans because predators like leopards are looking for easy prey items. They do not want to spend alot of energy in capturing their prey so if they see an easy prey they will go for it. The animal could have had something wrong with it and therefore looked for easier prey to catch. We as humans have to remember that we are very vulnerable even though we are the most intelligent of creatures, we are the easiest to capture. This does not mean go out and kill all leopards, but once a predator like the leopard has attacked a human, then it should be put down so as to stop the habit from spreading.