It has been out in the open and undisputed for several years now in MN, we have big cats. DNR does not try to deny it. I believe the first public statement in which MN DNR shared the confirmation with the general public was in a Duluth news paper several years back. That's the first one I knew of anyways where they openly and clearly confirmed the existence of big cats to the general public with a prepared statement.
That broke the ice, and since then there have been many cat stories in the news all over the state. Some recent ones that come to mind are the cat that was hit by a car by Bemidji and the guy that's in trouble for shooting one inside a culvert with an AR-15 in southern MN.
I don't believe there is any agenda with most of these things. I believe it's more of a political culture that representatives of wildlife offices abide by. I believe this is all mapped out by those a little higher up the ladder. And I believe this political culture is ever developing and changing with best intentions. Just as with any business.
Lets say it's an electric cooperative (power company). The company doesn't want a lineman or field serviceman out there interacting with the general public any way he pleases. He represents the company. You might have an employee that is personally completely off the grid, independent with solar panels, a small wind turbine, wood heat, a shack in the woods with an outhouse and maybe a half a dozen hamsters on a wheel powering a water pump.... whatever, this is America, each to their own. But you don't want that employee out there on calls jibber jabbering with customers like some crazy hippie preaching independence from "the man" and such. It just doesn't look good. You want that guy echoing the company�s planned public dialogue.
Same reason for a dress code, same reason for haircuts etc. For many years I�m sure the DNR was in a spot something like this : �Yeah we've got some cats, not we're not ready to talk about it yet, we're still trying to learn as much as we can so we can speak intelligently about it and not accidentally create a witch hunt or a panic throughout the state.�
I'm sure the considerations are layered pretty deeply.
So, I think I understand the structure, methods and reasoning for some of these contradictory interactions with the public.
That's fine. I actually sympathize.
Now, If the sumbiches could figure out how to flatten out the game licensing cycles and their effect on deer numbers.....
I swear that�s probably my only gripe. They issue too many tags for too many years then it seems they realize a little too late that they need to shut it down. It�s feast or famine with the deer tags in MN, god I wish they could learn to flatten that out a little.
