South Dakota Teen Kills Mountain Lion After Leaving ‘Trail of Destruction’ on Family Farm
OutdoorHub Reporters 10.02.17
After a “trail of destruction” was left on his family’s property, a teenager in South Dakota shot and killed a mountain lion believed to be terrorizing the dozens of animals housed by the family in the southwest region of the state, The Rapid City Journal reports.
According to the report, 14-year-old Dalton Streff climbed into a playhouse in the backyard armed with a rifle, and waited. He was on the hunt for a large cat that was causing a ruckus on his family’s property, and he knew it was only a matter of time before it returned.
Lila Streff, owner of Black Hills Goat Dairy, has been milking goats for nearly a decade, and says this is her first run-in with a mountain lion trying to eat her animals.
“It’s unnerving because I really have a smorgasbord of animals here,” she said. “If you don’t stop it, you’ll be at the mercy of the lions. I also have grandchildren out back occasionally, and I was worried.”
“We can see the goats right off the back porch, and we saw one lying on the ground back there,” Lila explained. “We went right out and looked, and it was dead. We also saw a trail of destruction from the chicken coop [consisting of] a dead cat, a dead duck, and a bunch of chicken feathers.”
Dalton, who was steady and in position inside the playhouse, said this about the moment the lion returned and Dalton caught a glimpse of it in his crosshairs:
“When I saw the mountain lion, I grabbed my gun quietly so I didn’t scare it off, quietly loaded one round, looked through the scope and shot it,” Dalton recalled. “When I shot it, it jumped about 20 feet and then did a face plant.”
