Though the Bay City man who shot and later killed a cougar in the Upper Peninsula maintains he did so to defend his father from a potential attack, the lead investigator in the case tells a different story and says there is no doubt in his mind that the animal was poached. “Our investigation and other evidence we have … tells us that at no time, at no point, was there ever, ever anyone’s life in danger. Never,” said Mike Hammill, a conservation officer for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Hammill added that after the cougar was dead, the father and son cooked and ate the feline’s heart.
Troy Richard said his father was unarmed and walking to a deer blind when he spotted a cougar emerge from some woods and assume a prowling-like stance. Troy Richard, who was still in the cabin, said he yelled at the cougar, but when it didn’t change its imposing stance, he grabbed a .22-250-caliber rifle and, taking aim through a cabin window, shot the feline.
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