Althouse: "Last Thursday, a woman in Charlestown, Indiana and her boyfriend stayed up all night, armed with a rifle, to hunt down whatever it was that had been attacking small animals in her neighborhood."

June 23, 2013

"Last Thursday, a woman in Charlestown, Indiana and her boyfriend stayed up all night, armed with a rifle, to hunt down whatever it was that had been attacking small animals in her neighborhood."

"After spotting and shooting a creature prowling in the shadows by the woman's pool, they were shocked to find that they'd just killed a leopard, an animal that's not native to North America, much less Indiana."

67 comments:

Icepick said...: WTF, Indiana? A Woman just got mauled by a tiger in the last few days. I blame Man-Bear-Pig, or something.; 6/23/13, 9:52 PM
Leon said...: some critters just aren't supposed to be kept as pets.; 6/23/13, 9:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Glad she spotted him; 6/23/13, 9:55 PM
L Day said...: That's what I'd call a budget leopard hunt.; 6/23/13, 9:59 PM
chickelit said...: I wonder who gets the pelt. I hear leopards make fine pillbox hats.; 6/23/13, 9:59 PM
L Day said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/23/13, 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I don't blame the woman, but that's like a shooting a unicorn.

Such a beautiful young cat.; 6/23/13, 10:01 PM
edutcher said...: Leopards are some of the most cunning predators on the planet.

That lady was very lucky.; 6/23/13, 10:06 PM
Chip S. said...: Before shooting any neighborhood leopards I always sing a chorus of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby."

In case one of them is somebody's pet.; 6/23/13, 10:06 PM
Icepick said...: Okay, ChipS wins the crazy award!; 6/23/13, 10:08 PM
Chip S. said...: "Screwball", please.

I'm sensitive.; 6/23/13, 10:10 PM
Icepick said...: Chip S wins the Screwball Award!; 6/23/13, 10:12 PM
Chip S. said...: Thanks for throwing me a bone.; 6/23/13, 10:14 PM
Pete said...: No one knew what the leopard was hunting for at that elevation.; 6/23/13, 10:19 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: I don't blame the woman, but that's like a shooting a unicorn.

Now she has a leopard to bear.

crickets...

This is a tough crowd.; 6/23/13, 10:25 PM
Chip S. said...: A good reporter would've asked if she shot it in her pajamas.; 6/23/13, 10:28 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Bone? That's Mr. Bone.

And he's got to marry Miss Swallow.; 6/23/13, 10:30 PM
Icepick said...: Thanks for throwing me a bone.

As long as I don't let the brains boil over, I'm good.

A good reporter would've asked if she shot it in her pajamas.

Follow the link, Chip. There's a picture of the leopard, and it clearly isn't wearing PJs. Unless the PJs are in a leopard print....

Now I just don't know WHAT to believe.; 6/23/13, 10:31 PM
Tim said...: Wow. That's kinda cool.

No doubt Global Warming is to blame for the Leopard's presence in Indiana.

That, or G.W. Bush.

Pick your poison.; 6/23/13, 10:31 PM
Chip S. said...: LaTouchè; 6/23/13, 10:31 PM
Icepick said...: And he's got to marry Miss Swallow.

Are we talking about that porno you watched that time in the office AGAIN?!; 6/23/13, 10:32 PM
Jim said...: No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.; 6/23/13, 10:32 PM
MadisonMan said...: I almost hit a horse in Indiana the other day, on Hwy 20. It and the attached buggy ran the red light (!) -- going full gallop. I guess it's hard for a horse to stop on pavement.

But maybe it was running from a leopard.

I noted a farm stand selling fresh peaches, so I'm driving back that same way to Madison to get some. Yum. Peaches.; 6/23/13, 10:32 PM
Icepick said...: Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n Pr0n
It's nothing but Pr0n around here some days.

(Other days it's a complete waste of time.); 6/23/13, 10:33 PM
Tim said...: "And he's got to marry Miss Swallow."

Five spot says the Supremes will rule Mr. Bone has got to marry Mr. Swallow.

Just 'cuz, well, you know.; 6/23/13, 10:33 PM
Tim said...: "Are we talking about that porno you watched that time in the office AGAIN?!"

Do "they" swallow in porn?

I have been under the impression they don't.

But, I'm probably wrong.

I only know so much.; 6/23/13, 10:35 PM
Icepick said...: Pick your poison.

Um, I pick Glenn Greenwald, on the set of Meet the Press, with a pipe bomb, er, the First Amendment! That or Hugo Chavez's ghost in the Senate antechamber with Edward Snowden's thumb drive.; 6/23/13, 10:36 PM
Chip S. said...: Miss Swallow's dog was a Spitz.; 6/23/13, 10:36 PM
Icepick said...: Do "they" swallow in porn?

That's a whole sub-genre of its own.

Or so I hear.; 6/23/13, 10:37 PM
Tim said...: Back to the subject at hand.

It really pisses me off they don't elucidate on the rifle and ammunition specs used to take the leopard.

Some people care about that.

Me?

Personally, I hope it was an AR-15 or AR-10, with a "High Capacity Magazine" and an Aim-Point scope.

Oh. And "cop-killer" bullets too.

Just because.

More specifically, if this causes both the PETA freaks AND the gun control freaks to piss their pants, this kill is a three-for, or, for hockey and other sports fans, a hat trick.; 6/23/13, 10:40 PM
Icepick said...: a hat trick

Which is yet ANOTHER sub-genre of pr0n that most definitely does NOT involve swallowing.

Or so I hear.; 6/23/13, 10:42 PM
Anonymous said...: Perhaps it was a deaf leopard?; 6/23/13, 10:43 PM
Tim said...: "...with Edward Snowden's thumb drive."

I understand the ex-girlfriend is a hottie - a stripper?

Nice to know the NSA's background checks are so, uh, thorough.

Because, well, who wouldn't entrust the nation's secrets with guys who hang with strippers?

What could possibly go wrong?; 6/23/13, 10:44 PM
Anonymous said...: A hottie with a healthy dose of skank. Many a man hath entered into those waters.; 6/23/13, 10:45 PM
Tim said...: "Which is yet ANOTHER sub-genre of pr0n that most definitely does NOT involve swallowing.

Or so I hear."

I am so innocent... I have no idea, except, that the temptation to google it on my family computer is tempered by the prospective results causing me to react in uncomfortable ways....maybe after the kids and wife go to sleep.; 6/23/13, 10:46 PM
Tim said...: chrisnavin.com said...

"A hottie with a healthy dose of skank. Many a man hath entered into those waters."

Been there, done that, as the kids say these days.

But I never sought a security clearance beyond the lowest level, a long, long time ago.

And, she really wasn't that skanky.

Just acted that way, uh, in private. Kinda a personal show...except that one time in, well, like I said, a long time ago.

Maybe the record has been expunged?; 6/23/13, 10:48 PM
Icepick said...: Perhaps it was a deaf leopard?

Well, it would be Ded Leopard now, wouldn't it? Which is a tribute band - but all the arrangements are done thrash metal style and the vocals are strictly Cookie Monster style. The band is populated by former Finnish Special Ops snipers. I saw them a couple of weeks back at some club on the other side of town. They were on just after the midget covering Queen songs that threw bananas at the audience. True story! Well, kind of. The part about the midget covering Queen songs and throwing bananas at the audience was true, everything else was made up. But other than that....; 6/23/13, 10:52 PM
Michael K said...: She should be arrested. Leopards are probably protected, or something.; 6/23/13, 10:55 PM
Icepick said...: Nice to know the NSA's background checks are so, uh, thorough.

Because, well, who wouldn't entrust the nation's secrets with guys who hang with strippers?

What could possibly go wrong?

Hey, they trust the President with men who fuck around with Third World street walkers, so what the fuck?

Incidentally, think about the plans to greatly increase immigration into the country. The government couldn't figure out that a couple of Chechens were likely terrorist bait, and now they want to up the number of people they're going to do "security" "background" "checks" up a few million a year? What could possibly go wrong!; 6/23/13, 10:55 PM
Icepick said...: I have no idea, except, that the temptation to google it on my family computer is tempered by the prospective results causing me to react in uncomfortable ways....maybe after the kids and wife go to sleep.

You'll want to use FIrefox with the Privacy Window, and search it out using DuckDuckGo.com. And lock the doors, of course, ya big perv. NTTAWWT.; 6/23/13, 10:56 PM
Icepick said...: Or so I hear....; 6/23/13, 11:01 PM
gpm said...: I just went GAY all of a sudden!

--gpm; 6/23/13, 11:10 PM
Tim said...: "Incidentally, think about the plans to greatly increase immigration into the country. The government couldn't figure out that a couple of Chechens were likely terrorist bait, and now they want to up the number of people they're going to do "security" "background" "checks" up a few million a year? What could possibly go wrong!"

As long as the undocumented Democrats are made legal voters, anything else that could possibly go wrong is just collateral damage.

In the name of "social justice," and permanent Democrat-Parasite Majorities, of course.; 6/23/13, 11:14 PM
gpm said...: Hmmm, just looking at the IMDB quotes, where they quote David as saying that's "pretty right" of Mr. Peabody. I've always heard that line as "pretty white." An interesting question of usages in the 30s. I think I can more or less get the sense of "pretty white," but "pretty right" seems pretty meaningless.

I was looking for Major Applegate's "I'm the niece. No, I'm the aunt." But they don't have that one.

"And don't you be calling this number again!"

--gpm; 6/23/13, 11:32 PM
Chip S. said...: Miss Swallow: "You tried it in the tail yesterday, and it didn't fit."

Well, the name certainly fits.; 6/23/13, 11:41 PM
The Scythian said...: "Because, well, who wouldn't entrust the nation's secrets with guys who hang with strippers?"

Have you been around pretty much any military base these days? I know plenty of guys with Secret and Top Secret clearances who went to strip clubs and hung out with strippers. Also, more than a few who were "read on" for specific missions in Afghanistan and Iraq who did the same thing.

I had a Secret clearance, I was read on for a six-month mission in Iraq, and I was in the system for a Top Secret. Two of my buddies from way back were (and are) strip club DJs (I would have become one myself, but my ex-girlfriend didn't want me working at a strip club), I know plenty of strippers, a few burlesque dancers, and even two professional dominatrices, both retired now. (And no, I didn't visit them professionally.)

I'm not sure what's so special about strippers that makes it more likely for people to hang out with them to spill state secrets.; 6/23/13, 11:55 PM
chickelit said...: I'm not sure what's so special about strippers that makes it more likely for people to hang out with them to spill state secrets.

Strippers are naked truthers.; 6/24/13, 12:01 AM
Panachronic said...: Let me get this straight...

The woman didn't know she'd killed a leopard until AFTER she shot it?

That red-lines the stupidity meter. You don't shot ANYTHING before you've identified it.; 6/24/13, 12:48 AM
chickelit said...: That red-lines the stupidity meter. You don't shot ANYTHING before you've identified it.

No. Lots of old school, shootable predators walk on four legs. City folk don't understand that. TBHO, when I first read this, I thought that they had shot a person instead of a leopard.
The only way this story could be worse for the PETA people is if they had used a helicopter.; 6/24/13, 12:55 AM
zefal said...: He was that close to getting amnesty!; 6/24/13, 1:09 AM
J said...: When I last checked leopards are by far the most dangerous big cat.At the time something like 10-20 times the number of people killed by lions and tigers were killed by leopards every year.Leopards like garbage dumps and apparently consider dog a tasty treat.; 6/24/13, 1:24 AM
L Day said...: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_of_Rudraprayag; 6/24/13, 4:17 AM
edutcher said...: Tim said...

Are we talking about that porno you watched that time in the office AGAIN?!

Do "they" swallow in porn?

Do I have to go through that old gag?

AGAIN?; 6/24/13, 5:59 AM
Firehand said...: He looked healthy; he'd been living well.
Leopards are the most widely-distributed big cat in the world as far as climate: everything from desert to mountains. They're as adaptable as coyote.
Capstick(and others) wrote that while a lion in a charge was more likely to kill you if it got hold of you, a leopard- because of size, camouflage and being so incredibly fast- were more likely to get hold of you. And bite and claw the tax-reform act out of you.

Either somebody turned it loose or got got out of an enclosure and proceeded to make itself at home.; 6/24/13, 8:19 AM
Mitch H. said...: Has anyone checked the local planning office lavatory to see if there's an exit door ajar?; 6/24/13, 9:02 AM
mariner said...: Didn't a large number of large animals escape from a zoo in Indiana ~three years ago?; 6/24/13, 9:07 AM
Michael Haz said...: This is why we need a border fence. Undocumented leopards.; 6/24/13, 9:12 AM
Stilton Cheeseright said...: It will turn out that leopards are a protected species.; 6/24/13, 9:14 AM
Ron said...: Chip S. Wins the "Bringing Up Baby" award for best Althouse leopard blogging!; 6/24/13, 9:18 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: So, would this make it an endangered species?
Or, did they eliminate an invasive species?; 6/24/13, 10:38 AM
Methadras said...: Why is no one asking why this couple has decided to shoot at things unseen in the night? My god, it could have been a chupacabra they killed. Can't have that.; 6/24/13, 10:49 AM
Rusty said...: Either somebody turned it loose or got got out of an enclosure and proceeded to make itself at home.

You haven't considered the other possibility.
That there is a breeding population in the wild.; 6/24/13, 11:13 AM
Anthony said...: Poor leopard. Pisses me off whoever had it and let it go. I would have preferred it be captured.; 6/24/13, 11:23 AM
Carnifex said...: Off topic a little bit, but several decades ago, when my dad was a federal game warden, he was tracking a mountain lion and her cub here in Kentucky. At Ft. Knox actually, which is just minutes from Louisville. The wardens were told under no circumstance, are they to injury the lion. And to deny their existence.

2 decades ago the KY fish and Wildlife did admit to having mountain lions in Ky. And just before dad died there was a picture of one walking down the road in the Elizabethtown paper.

I won't be surprised in the least if the In. F and W shows up on her doorstep with a very hefty fine.; 6/24/13, 2:01 PM
Michael Haz said...: A leopard in Charlestown, Indiana?

Pffft. That's nothing. You should have seen the herd of cougars roaming the pits during the Indianaoplis 500 in Speedway, Indiana.

What? Too late?; 6/24/13, 9:29 PM
I'll take facts, hold the narrative said...: A large cat with spots is killed white it was stalking small animals near human habitation.

Officials sent he corpse to the lab for identification after stating that it appears to be a leopard.

Are we afraid of saying the obvious?; 6/24/13, 9:52 PM
I'll take facts, hold the narrative said...: A large cat with spots is killed white it was stalking small animals near human habitation.

Officials sent he corpse to the lab for identification after stating that it appears to be a leopard.

Are we afraid of saying the obvious?; 6/24/13, 9:54 PM