Bobcat kills four kittens at area man's home

A man from the Marble Hill, Missouri, area shot and killed an intruder on his property Friday night -- but not before the trespassing bobcat killed four domestic kittens.

Larry Wiseheart returned home from dinner just after 9 p.m. Friday to find a bobcat had gotten into a small dog run on the back porch where the couple was housing a mother cat and several kittens.

"I tried to shoo it away. I had a large Maglite, and I ran along the fence and everything and tried to spook it and get it away from there, and it just laid there and looked at me," Wiseheart said. "So I went in the pen, and ... I waved the light at and it wouldn't move. And it growled at me, so I shot it."

Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center manager Sara Turner said such behavior is not typical among bobcats.

"Usually they're just like any other wild animal," in they avoid human contact, Turner said.

Wiseheart said the enclosure had no top, so he believes the bobcat likely jumped over to get inside. Bobcats can jump up to about 10 feet, according to mdc.mo.gov. He said the animal was "leggy" with a big head, but looked thin. He estimated it weighed about 30 pounds.

"It wasn't scared of me at all. That was the thing that really bothered me," Wiseheart said.

Wiseheart, who has a concealed-carry permit, shot the bobcat using a .380 handgun he says he carries with him. He said he believes the animal was female.

Tami Bernhardt, Wiseheart's girlfriend, had seen the bobcat lying on the porch earlier in the day but didn't get a close look because it ran when she pulled up.

"There are always critters of one kind or another out there" on his land, such as coyotes, turkeys and wolves, "but that's the first bobcat that I had seen," Wiseheart said.

It wasn't Wiseheart's first run-in with a wild animal on his porch. About five years ago, a bear on his back porch left paw prints about 9 inches in diameter on top of a feed can.

"My dog didn't really appreciate it," Wiseheart said.

The mama cat, which was in the pen nursing three remaining kittens at the time Wiseheart encountered the bobcat, seems to have recovered from the trauma.

"She looked for [the deceased kittens] for a couple of days, and now she's settled in with her three and she's being very protective of them." The kittens were starting to open their eyes at the time of the attack, Wiseheart said.

Wiseheart lives on about four acres in the middle of 600 acres of wooded area. His nearest neighbor is about a 16th of a mile away, he said.

"I think people need to be aware of that because at this close to town, I don't think any of their pets are safe, at least not the smaller ones," he said.

Turner said people should keep small pets such as kittens inside and keep dog and cat food in the house.

She said a person confronted by a bobcat should "make themselves look big and try to scare it away with loud noises and that sort of thing." She said if a person runs away, the animal could assume they are prey and chase them.

Turner said rabbits make up the majority of a Missouri bobcat's diet, though they can take down larger animals, even occasionally deer, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation's website.

"But they're just like any other animal: They're opportunistic. They're going to go for whatever's easy ..." Turner said.

Still, she said, this particular bobcat's behavior is rare, and they are not conisdered nuisance animals by the conservation department. "It's not a trend in Missouri or anything like that."

Wiseheart said he had talked to the conservation department and has disposed of the animal's body.

He said he is not a hunter and never considered having the bobcat mounted.

"I don't need the thing staring back at me," Wiseheart said.

kwebster@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Marble Hill, MO