The emails have poured into the newsroom. They report that a Northern Michigan man shot and killed a cougar. Maybe you've seen them. The emails say who shot it, where he works and how it all happened. They have generated a lot of buzz here at the station and even more at the store that the man supposedly owns. But is it true? The answer I found is the subject of this Fact Finder.
The email in question includes pictures of dead cougar, a man posing with it, and a conservation officer, plus the following text:
"This is Mark Bailey who owns the IGA Grocery store in Mesick, Mi. He heard his dogs barking and went out to check it out. They had the lion in the tree. When the lion saw Mark, he jumped out of the tree and came towards him.. His dog attacked the lion in the side which gave Mark enough time to pull his hand gun out and shoot the lion 9 times. It did not kill him but disabled him. He called the DNR who finished him off. If it weren't for Mark's dog, he would have been attacked."
The email is spreading like wildfire. It has been sent to me alone more than 50 times in the past week. Some viewers are stating its fact, and proof that there are cougars in Michigan. Others are just wondering if it's true at all.
Although each version is a little different, they share some common trends. Each one comes with a handful of pictures and describes how a cougar was shot and killed by Mark Bailey who owns the grocery store in Mesick. Since the last known cougar was shot in Michigan more than a century ago, this has created a lot of buzz and not just in cyberspace. The grocery store mentioned in the email is getting a lot of inquiries as well.
Ken Abraham is the actually owner of the grocery store. He told me "We got the email about 3 weeks ago, but the last 10 days it's been everyday, 10, 15, 20 phone calls a day." Ken was able to find the first inaccuracy in the email. It states that Mark Bailey owns the store. Ken does actually, and as for any employee of store, Ken sums it up pretty simply "there is no Mark Bailey."
So it wasn't the owner or an employee of the grocery store in Mesick who shot the cougar. But that doesn't mean the entire email is a hoax right? I mean maybe the original writer of the email just got their facts crossed up. After all it doesn't really matter where the hunter works but rather where the cougar was shot. So I dug a little deeper, and we might know that information as well. I sent the email to several DNR officers I know here in Michigan. They told to me "go west" based on one picture in particular. The picture shows the cougar, the shooter, and a conservation officer in uniform. I started forwarding the email to fish and game departments around the country to see if they recognize the officer pictured and after several attempts, a hit in New Mexico.
Wildlife management division chief Jim Lane of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department wrote back "That is definitely one of our guys in uniform. Might be Officer Colin Duff."
So my next step was to track down Officer Duff, who spends a lot of time in the field in New Mexico. After a few days, he fired back this email which pretty much put the story to rest.
Marc,
Yes this happened in New Mexico mid April 2009. I am the Officer in the photograph. The story is reported somewhat right, except the location. This happened about 10 miles south of Cloudcroft, NM at Marc Bailey's residence. Mr. Bailey does own the Mountain Top Merchentile in Cloudcroft, NM (not on IGA). I talked with the local DNR Officer in Mich. a couple of weeks ago about this also. Here in NM when something like this happens or an Officer seizes an animal, we have to sell the carcass. I sold this cougar to a local taxidermist in Alamogordo, NM. He sent the cougar hide off to a tannery in Mich to have the hide tanned. The hide is back in his possession now. So that might be the only connection to Mich. All cougars and bear taken in NM are tagged with a green plastic pelt tag with a number assigned to that pelt.
Hope this clears things up.
Colin Duff
NM Dept. Game and Fish
Alamogordo District Wildlife Officer
So at this point, unless we get someone coming forward who can counter all of that evidence or provide some new details, we can safely say that the email appears to be a hoax. If you can prove me wrong in this case, let me know. Or if you have had a cougar sighting you would like to share, please leave your comments below.
