Now Hiring: Person who likes to kill animals, but will pretend they like animals and want to save them

ILLINOIS -- A male cougar found lounging near an Illinois farmhouse was shot dead Wednesday by a conservation officer whose duty it is to protect wildlife.

The officer made a snap decision to kill the big cat after deciding it posed a safety threat to people living in the farmhouse about 130 miles west of Chicago, an assertion contested by a mammal expert at Chicago’s Field Museum.

‘I can’t figure out why this animal had to be shot,’ Bruce Patterson told the Chicago Tribune.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is now scrambling to explain why the officer put down an animal that may not have posed a threat to humans.

Other options include leaving the 100 pound, six-foot animal alone or even tranquilizing it to allow IDNR officers to relocate it, a spokesperson for the agency told the paper.

The officer did not tranquilize the animal because IDNR cops are not properly trained or equipped, a veterinarian would have had to be called. This was not an option because of the safety risk posed, the agency argued.

‘Public safety is what we’ll make the decision on every time,’ the spokesperson added.

The cougar frightened the home’s residents after it was found hiding in a concrete tunnel under a corn crib – a large building similar to a silo that stores corn.

That the large animal was found there is evidence it was not a threat, it was looking for shelter, Mr Patterson explained before suggesting the animal could have simply been left to its own devices.

‘It’s possible to manage wildlife while still keeping it around,’ the scientist said.

Authorities were called after locals spotted the beast running through a corn field towards the farmhouse, according to the IDNR.

The animal wasn’t in the open when it was killed, the normally nocturnal animal was hiding under the corn crib. The farmer asked the officer to kill it, according to the agency.

Another official fired multiple additional shots into the animal ‘to make sure’ it died, he told the Sauk Valley Gazette.

‘It was an unfortunate thing,’ soil and water conservation district official David Harrison said after taking the lethal shots.

‘It’s unusual for an animal like that to be around humans,’ he added. ‘They are fairly shy, I don’t know what it was doing in a cornfield.’

(Daily Mail - Nov 22, 2013)