Earlier this year, Fox 17 brought you in depth coverage of reported cougar sightings in the Midstate. Big cats out in the wild like the one at the Nashville Zoo.  Wildlife officials say they don't exist here,  but tonight more people are coming forward with pictures
of big cats.  They think this could possibly be a cougar cover up.

Montage of news clips:
Newscaster says:  "A family who is still in shock after this horrific attack."
Newscaster says:  "When a cougar attacked him and was about to carry him away."
Newscaster says:  "3 vicious attacks on horses.. and the owners think it's a cougar

 Reports of cougar attacks out West aren't  unheard of.  Here though?  Patricia Porter Kryder owns a farm in Lynnville.   "It was some kind of cat and whatever they want to call the cat,  a mountain lion, cougar whatever else,  it was a cat!"

The Nashville attorney believes a cougar--- living deep in the woods of giles couinty attacked her horse, sugar, on her Lynnville farm two weeks ago.  Porter - Kryder says, " If you study what cats do.. that's the way cats attack as predators.  They always attack in the side of the rib to stop whatever animal it is because  that's where the blood flow is and the area closest to the heart.  
That's exactly how Kryder says Sugar went down  knocking down this fence trying to get away.  Then there's this.  A picture of what some believe is a cougar captured on a hunter's trail camera nearby, a hunter  who just so happens to work for the Tennessee Wildlife Foundation.

Stacy Case asks:  "This pic right here this is your pic?"
Johnny Allred with the TN Wildlife Foundation says, "Yeah it is.  It come off my game camera. I went through the photos on my game cam.  You've got a dozen deer pictures  and fox pics and coyote pictures. And that came up and I said golly that looks like a cat."

Stacy Case  asks Giles County Sheriff Kyle Helton: "Obviously Johnny Allred is a credible guy?"
Sheriff says: "Very, very otudoorsman. Like I said he works for TN  Wildlife Foundation now and that's the cat I've been seeing."

Yes, you heard right, even the sheriff says he's seen really big cats  a few times!  Sheriff says: "We're talking a tail that long. I passed the psychological so I feel confident  I did see the cats."   Sheriff Helton lives just around the corner from the attorney's farm. Neighbor Lena Wright  lives at the other end of the attorney's  road.  She says, "I've seen a cougar. 2 actually."

Two people on either side believe there's possibly a pocket population. 
Wright adds, "I had actually just walked out the house and where our driveway comes together right there he was directly right there by our camper.  However, other neighbors like Ann Neville aren't so sure.  "I hear coyotes howling a lot, but I've never heard cougars."

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency's officials  position is we don't have them here.  As for this trail cam picture?
Gray Anderson with TWRA says, "It is very cougarish, but at this point I feel pretty comfortable saying this is a dog."
The reason Anderson adds, "The tail to me it looks like there's more hair hanging down rather than the nice round tail.

Stacy asks the TN Wildlife Foundation employee who captured the image on his game camera, "Can you see a dog in that?
Johnny Allred, "Not really.  I'll agree it's questionable. It does look like a cat in the pic."
 
Stacy says to the Sheriff, "They all told him it was a dog."
Sheriff says, "Well I still feel sane (pauses) that this is a dog.   (gestures to his dog on the ground & laughs)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declared the Eastern cougar extinct. There are established populations in green out West.. and spotty confirmation Eastward where you see dots. The closest to us is this one killed in Georgia in 2008.
Stacy asks the TWRA representative, "So if they are that close and they've been confirmed that close.. how do cougars know where the state line starts and stops?
Gray Anderson with the TWRA answers, "Oh they don't. There was one well documented that moved from the black hills of south Dakota".

   And in previous Fox 17 investigations people shared paw prints and sightings in Lawrenceburg,  pictures and prints in Brentwood
and stills from other Midstate locations like the Natchez Trace.  Stacy Case standing at horse's grave says, "This is where Sugar was laid to rest out behind her barn.  What didn't die with her though is the controversy which is alive and well on  Facebook.   In this neighborhood facebook group, one person says it's a bit stunning.  Another posts,  "the cat" is someone's dog."  One more says,   "Saw one coming up my driveway several months ago."

  However,  this Nashville attorney and horse lover is certain only a cougar could have taken down the 'one thousand pound' sugar--- an animal she says was a sweet as her name.   Porter-Kryder says, "The evidence speaks for itself. The way she was attacked.  How she was eaten and how she was left."

   Those who believe we have cougars here say acknowledging them would be expensive because wildlife officials would be responsible for managing and protecting them. We've gotten emails and pictures from many of you and we'd love to see more.
  Contact Fox 17  on Facebook or send me an email at scase@fox17.com

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SPECIAL REPORT: Cougar Cover Up?