Cattle-killing Cats
IT A STARTED last July with a phone call… “Do you want to shoot some lions?”
We had heard via the grapevine that two young male lions had invaded a neighbouring cattle ranch, but we knew no more than that. My son-in-law, Clinton, a workmate Carl and I arrived and met the farm manager and game scouts from the department of Wildlife who had been deployed a month deal with the marauders. They told us the lions had been killing cattle. The game scouts, armed only with shotguns, had wounded one before deciding to request assistance.
We obtained the farm manager’s permission to shoot a young kudu for bait. We gutted the carcass and put the innards and blood into a drum, then dragged the entrails along the roads and firebreaks while continuously dribbling blood and fluids along the trail. Then we secured the carcass to a tree, not bothering to hang it as
