[renegade]

No not that I've heard. After droves of amishman, an aerial thermal flyover, and some professional tracking dogs, they've turned up nothing not even sign. The stories and comments I'm reading all point to a hoax. Even the USP, who was championing the stories legitimacy and claiming a cover up by the PGC, is now backing off and has "unofficially" called it a hoax.

[renegade]

GAME COMMISSION RELEASE RESULTS OF ALLEGED MOUNTAIN LION ATTACK



HARRISBURG - In announcing the current results of its ongoing investigation into an alleged mountain lion attack on Oct. 9, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today announced that there is no evidence that the alleged attack on Samuel Fisher, 42, of Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County, occurred.



Game Commission officials were called to an area of Mount Pleasant Road, when Fisher alleged to have shot one large cat and then was attacked and injured by a second large cat.



A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter was brought into the area to search for the presence of the alleged animal using a FLIR Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera. Search dogs specifically trained to find and follow the trail of cats detected no cat activity in the area other than a small house cat.


Game Commission officers gathered numerous samples at the scene alleged to be blood. Those samples were sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab for testing. Samples collected from multiple sites at the incident, including the alleged blood trail, area where Fisher allegedly shot the animal and where Fisher allegedly fought with the animal, all tested negative for blood by the State Police laboratory. While the chemical testing did indicate the presence of blood on the knife that Fisher allegedly used to stab the animal, the lab also found that the knife contained deer hair. The knife is being sent to the East Stroudsburg University for further analysis of the blood in an effort to identify what type of blood it is.



Investigating officers found no evidence of mountain lion hair or scat or tracks at, around or in the vicinity of the alleged incident.



Charges may be filed against Fisher for making false or fraudulent statements.


“The Pennsylvania Game Commission has no evidence of wild, breeding populations of large cats in Pennsylvania to date,” said Doug Killough, Game Commission Southeast Region director. “With that in mind, we do acknowledge that numerous people do have exotic animals which escape or are released illegally. While this incident is considered to be a hoax, we will continue to investigate credible sightings or evidence of exotic wildlife.”



To reiterate his point, Killough noted that, in the past 10 years, confirmed sightings of wallabies, wolf-hybrids, emus, alligators and other non-native exotic wildlife have been captured in the Southeast Region. Also, in 2002, charges were filed against a Dauphin County resident for illegal possession of a mountain lion that had been purchased in Virginia.

[renegade]

Pa. Game Commission: Mountain lion attack was hoax
The Associated Press (Oct. 20, 2008)
QUARRYVILLE, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Game Commission says there's no evidence to support a Lancaster County man's report that he shot a mountain lion and was injured by a second cat while tracking it.
The agency said Monday that state police crime lab tests showed a supposed blood trail wasn't blood. A search turned up no evidence of mountain lion hair, feces or tracks in the vicinity.
A knife the man says he used to fight with the animal near his Quarryville farm has deer hair on it. Further tests are being done on blood on the knife.
There hasn't been a confirmed sighting of a wild mountain lion in Pennsylvania for more than a century.

[Younghunter]

The cougar conspiracy is an interesting one... there is one in nearly every state that no longer has cougar populations. We have "cougar sightings" in Wisconsin all the time.

Except the one time when there actually was a cougar, the evidence was clear and convincing the whole way through, instead of these spotty stories and hoaxes. Concrete evidence was found in a matter of months since the sightings became frequent and incidents were reported (a nearby neighbor had their horse attacked and my high school biology teacher actually saw the cougar). Finally DNA evidence was found in the cougars tracks from a cut on one of its paws. Months later the cougar was shot in Chicago. DNA evidence suspects that the cougar was an adult male dispersing from the Black Hills region in South Dakota, over 800 miles away.

-Matt

[renegade]

Actually it starting to seem as though the usp had a hand in the hoax itself, or else in their haste to try and blacken an eye of the PGC, they failed to do due diligence when looking at the evidence and questioning the locals. In fact after days of turning up nothing, Steve Mohr the USP president, had started telling people that PGC officers removed the carcasses on Thursday night. They must have also removed all hair, tracks, scat, the shell casing, etc…And all this took place while Mohr slept in his truck next to the scene.

[renegade]

GAME COMMISSION RELEASES LATEST TEST RESULTS OF ALLEGED MOUNTAIN LION ATTACK



HARRISBURG - In announcing the most recent results of its ongoing investigation into an alleged mountain lion attack on Oct. 9, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today announced tests conducted on a knife allegedly used by Samuel Fisher, 42, of Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County, were positive for human blood. The tests were conducted by East Stroudsburg University in Monroe County.


On Oct. 20, the Game Commission announced that tests conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab determined that samples collected from multiple sites the scene of the alleged attack tested negative for blood. Further tests are being conducted by the State Police Crime Lab to determine what the substance is.



Game Commission officials were called to an area of Mount Pleasant Road, when Fisher alleged to have shot one large cat and then was attacked and injured by a second large cat on Oct. 9.


A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter was brought into the area to search for the presence of the alleged animal using a FLIR Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera. Search dogs specifically trained to find and follow the trail of cats detected no cat activity in the area other than a small house cat.


Game Commission officers gathered numerous samples at the scene alleged to be blood. Samples collected from multiple sites at the incident, including the alleged blood trail, area where Fisher allegedly shot the animal and where Fisher allegedly fought with the animal, all tested negative for blood by the State Police laboratory. At that time, chemical testing by the State Police Crime Lab did indicate the presence of blood on the knife that Fisher allegedly used to stab the animal, however, the lab also found that the knife contained deer hair.


Investigating officers announced that they found no evidence of mountain lion hair or scat or tracks at, around or in the vicinity of the alleged incident. The shirt that Fisher was wearing during the alleged attack contained no blood or any signs of dirt from a struggle with an animal on the ground.


Charges may be filed against Fisher for making false or fraudulent statements.


“The Pennsylvania Game Commission has no evidence of wild, breeding populations of large cats in Pennsylvania to date,” said Doug Killough, Game Commission Southeast Region director. “With that in mind, we do acknowledge that numerous people do have exotic animals which escape or are released illegally. While this incident is considered to be a hoax, we will continue to investigate credible sightings or evidence of exotic wildlife.”


To reiterate his point, Killough noted that, in the past 10 years, confirmed sightings of wallabies, wolf-hybrids, emus, alligators and other non-native exotic wildlife have been captured in the Southeast Region. Also, in 2002, charges were filed against a Dauphin County resident for illegal possession of a mountain lion that had been purchased in Virginia.
_________________________________

That being said, I beleive the PA unified sportsmen (PUS) should be charged as well for false statements. They took advantage of the situation to promote their own agenda while exploiting the amish community. Mohr even went as far as claiming to be their spokesman. There were large costs incurred by having that helicopter doing a FLIR fly over. The taxpayer should not have to cover those costs for a hoax.

[renegade]

The saga continues! Seems a bit of CYA is going on.

Lancaster New Era
Nov 20, 2008
By AD CRABLE, Staff Writer

With charges apparently imminent against an Amish farmer who claims he was attacked by a cougar in Sadsbury Township Oct. 9, a sportsmen's group has hired an attorney to represent him.

"The whole purpose is to protect Samuel Fisher's rights, not to prove he is guilty or not guilty," said Charles Bolgiano, an East Hempfield Township resident and board member of the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.

The group has retained Middletown attorney Kendra A. Mohr "to protect Samuel's legal, constitutional rights," according to a USP statement.

USP has set up a defense fund for Fisher and is asking that donations be sent to USP Legal Defense Fund/Samuel Fisher Defense, Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, 260 Orchard View Drive., Leola, PA, 17540.

Mohr has sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, notifying them Fisher was not to be approached anymore for questioning.

The attorney is the daughter of Stephen Mohr, of Bainbridge, who is president of USP.

According to sources, a Pennsylvania Game Commission official contacted Fisher's bishop recently and notified him the agency would be filing charges against Fisher.

An unnamed Game Commission official was quoted in the latest issue of Pennsylvania Outdoor News as saying charges against Fisher were a matter of when, not if.

Fisher, 42, of 92 Windy Top Road, says he shot one of three mountain lions seen near his farm on the afternoon of Oct. 9. He was following a blood trail of the animal when another jumped from a tree onto him, causing lacerations that had to be treated at a hospital. He said the attack ended when he stabbed the mountain lion and it ran off.

Reports of a large catlike creature had surfaced in the area for weeks before the incident — and continued for several weeks afterward.

After the alleged attack, a massive hunt ensued, involving a helicopter, dogs and traps.

The Game Commission said samples of what Fisher pointed out as the blood trail were sent to a lab and turned out not to be blood. Also, blood found on the knife Fisher said he used to stab the animal turned out to be human blood, not from an animal, the agency reported.

The agency is still awaiting further analysis of the substance collected from the supposed blood trail.

The Game Commission says the whole incident was a hoax and that it might charge Fisher with making false statements.

Fisher has repeatedly stuck by his story. And USP has been supportive, charging the Game Commission with minimizing reliable sightings of mountain lions in the area.

[renegade]

Seems like a huge conflict of interest to me. Word on the street is that the usp is broke and can't continue with the lawsuit. Maybe this fund raiser is a way to divert money to help it continue along a little further. If I were a member I certainly wouldn't want my money going towards defending this guy.

Oldtimer - As our resident usp member, what are your thoughts on the upper level memberships decision on this?