Montana Governor Greg Gianforte Shoots a Mountain Lion and the Left Explodes With Outrage

By
John Boch
-
107
Greg Gianforte hunting mountain lion
Republican Greg Gianforte poses below animal trophies in his home in Bozeman, Mont. (AP Photo/Matt Volz, File)

Another day, another day of (out)rage from the anti-hunting, anti-gun Left in America.  Instead of directing their ire at criminal gangs, drug cartels, non-performing prosecutors, or criminals crossing our borders, they now attack Montana Governor Greg Gianforte for legally hunting and killing a mountain lion.

That he shot it on public lands has added to the pearl-clutching vapors they as they furiously fan themselves.

Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post (Democracy Dies in Darkness) brings us the latest news from the wild west. They breathlessly deliver the story of Montana’s governor harvesting a wild cat as if they had just run all the way from Big Sky Country to bring us the news.

On public land north of Yellowstone National Park late last year, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) shot and killed a mountain lion that was being monitored by National Park Service staff, after hunting dogs had chased it up a tree.

The mountain lion hunt, which has not been previously reported, occurred on Dec. 28 on a swath of U.S. Forest Service land southwest of Emigrant, Mont., according to residents familiar with the episode who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships in the community.

An anonymous report? Did these concerned citizens also slip the WaPo’s Joshua Partlow details of the governor’s secret ties with Russia and how they helped him steal an election?

Less than a year earlier, Gianforte killed a Yellowstone wolf in a similar area that was wearing a tracking collar, prompting an outcry among environmentalists.

Just because an animal wears a tracking collar doesn’t mean it can’t be hunted when the law allows it.

The 5-year-old mountain lion was wearing a GPS-tracking collar that Yellowstone biologists use to monitor the rare and elusive predators. Park staff knew the animal by its research number: M220.

Oh, no. The mountain lion had a name. Bless Partlow’s little heart for trying to humanize a wild animal.

Gianforte’s press secretary, Brooke Stroyke, confirmed on Monday that the governor had hunted the mountain lion. She said he had a valid license, drove the lion up into a tree and shot it on public land.
 
“The governor and friends tracked the lion on public lands,” Stroyke said in an emailed statement to The Washington Post. “As the group got closer to the lion, members of the group, who have a hound training license, used four hounds to tree the lion once the track was discovered in a creek bottom on public land.”

Stroyke said that after the mountain lion was chased into the tree, Gianforte confirmed it was a male, “harvested it, and put his tag on it,” she said. “He immediately called to report the legal harvest and then the [Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks] game warden. In Livingston, the governor met the game warden who tagged the lion and took the collar.”

Governor Gianforte’s displays of toxic masculinity makes the special snowflakes and anti-hunting bigots melt down with exceptional efficiency.

If you doubt Gianforte’s ability to trigger the Left, look no further than the comments on Twitter.

These people hate lawful hunters and gun owners, plain and simple. But you already knew that.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

107 COMMENTS

  1. Would the Leftard’s be so judgemental if this puma killed their puppy(or baby)???? Cool governor😎

    • California
      https://www.yourtango.com/news/california-mom-fights-mountain-lion-save-5-year-old-son
      https://www.bikeiowa.com/News/517 (female bicyclist attacked, a man found dead [eaten]).
      There was an older story from CA. of a mother who was killed by a mountain lion (that was tracked and killed). As expected a fundraiser was started for the rescue of the cubs. On the other hand no one raised any funds for the mother’s children. This story was circa 1990’s. Here is a list of attacks from CA. fish & wildlife.
      https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Mountain-Lion/Attacks

      • “On the other hand no one raised any funds for the mother’s children.”

        False.

        Next time, kiddo, mind what your third grade teacher told you, “Do your homework.”

      • Californication has an unusual way of classifying mountain lion attacks. If the cat eats his two-legged victim it is not an attack as the cat is just doing what is natural to it as a top of the food chain creature. It is only an attack if the animal scratches, bites or otherwise injures the two-legged critter but doesn’t eat it. If the cat just snarls and hisses at the two-legged creature, it is merely an encounter and not an attack even if the two-legged creature throws rocks and takes other actions to discourage anything further than snarling and hissing and other actions intended to intimidate its victim — oops, excuse me, invader of its territory.

        When I read that in Western Outdoor News I almost knocked myself out with my jaw hitting the tagle.

        Regarding fund raising for the children orphaned by the non-attack on the woman hiker (because it ate part of her) I cannot cite the specific page and issue of WON wherein the article appeared, but that was reported in that publication and I have better things to do than spend some time to counter the demand of some errant bambiest.

  2. Too bad he didn’t use an AR-15 to shoot it. The left would be rendered speechless if he did.

    • That little .223 round isn’t powerful enough for a humane kill of a cougar. Best for coyotes, raccoons and, of course, people.

      • Hunters legitimately hunt mountain lions with a .357 magnum revolver. While a .223 would not be my choice for hunting animals which are just as likely to attack me as drop dead, a skillful hunter can easily harvest a big cat with a .223. In Texas, the .223 is the weapon of choice for hunting wild boar, easily as big as a large cat and somewhat harder to kill due to the gristle plate they have on their shoulders. .357 magnum revolvers are also used to harvest wild boar in many states but I understand the .223 is the most popular for such hunting in Texas.

  3. The takeaway here?

    If you go out into mountain lion country, always bring along a few leftards to throw at an attacking animal. 🤔

    Problem solved.

    • Either that, or take fat assed, cowardly Texans who constantly brag about their gun collection and also falsely claim one of their sons used an AR-10 in self defense 🖕🤡.

        • Actually that is incorrect. It can be and has been cured. It usually requires a life altering event such as a Come to Jesus moment. Where their life flashes before their eyes. As some scumbag shoves a firearm in their face or at their children and they have No way to defend themselves. Suddenly everything they believed in from Defund the Police, Criminal Justice Reform to Open Borders becomes less of a Utopian ideal to becoming a teachable moment. While it doesn’t happen often enough. The resulting terror often leads to more than 1 Liberal changing their belief structure.

  4. I’d like to see those leftists facing that “cat” face to face, on a mountian trail while totally unarmed. I’d bet they’d have a different view then………….

    • If you’re face to face that isn’t usually a problem. You caught them off guard and they lose their confidence. It’s the one you don’t see that will break your neck leaving you paralyzed but alive as you are slowly eaten over several days. Isn’t nature beautiful?

      • They’re officially extinct in my neck of the woods, but they do exist. There are sightings every year. They’re probably thinking about eating you if you spot one. I might have to make a preemptive attack if I spot one, so I can be assured a safe walk out of the woods.

      • Crimson Pirate,

        Your comment is incredibly grim. Unfortunately it is also accurate.

      • People think mountain lions are fuzzy and cuddly large house cats. They are not. A large male mountain lion can weigh 250 pounds and has unbelievable strength in addition to huge claws and teeth. Such a large male mountain lion could likely break your arm with a powerful swipe of their front paws. And if they extend their claws, they could “unzip” you from your sternum to your pelvis. Of course they could easily paralyze (as you stated) or kill you with a single powerful bite of their mouth and long canine teeth.

        Mountain lions are extremely dangerous. Anyone who fails to plan accordingly is playing with gasoline fumes and matches.

    • Having seen (and been seen by) cats in the mountains of the west, it is rare that you see them face to face. You have to be quick to see them if you’ve walked up on one and surprised it – they usually vacate your path of movement when you move straight in on them.

      The way they’re stalking and seeing you is from the back. I’ve had hunting buddies walk up on me and see the cat that has been stalking be, 40 yards back, suddenly slink off into the PJ’s. I’ve done the same thing with buddies – walk up on them at an appointed meeting spot whilst hunting something like chukar, and suddenly see a cat slink uphill and away from us from behind him/her, again, working quickly to be obscured in the PJ’s.

      Cats are perfectly happy to stalk large men. They’re moving quite quietly, playing the angles in the trees, working their way up on you. The way they want to get you is an attack where they can jump down onto you from behind and a quarter off your axis of movement – like behind you from 4 to 5 o’clock, or 7 to 8 o’clock. When I’m hiking alone in the mountains, I regularly whip around and scan behind me every couple hundred yards or so. Sometimes I spook a mulie that has circled back to check me out. Occasionally in my local mountains, an elk or moose will move across my trail behind me. Every so often, tho, you whip around and see a flash of a tail disappearing into the brush, and it’s nice to know that you’ve just busted that cat’s stalk.

  5. Leftists are extraordinarily unhappy people. Since erupting in full-throated outrage provides one of the few distractions from their otherwise tedious and dismal lives, they seek it whenever and wherever possible. Nice shooting, governor!

  6. Typical Leftist drivel: “All psychology is reverse psychology. Anyone who exhibits male behavior, universally recognized as such in every culture throughout 99% of recorded history, does so to compensate for somehow being less of a man. One can only demonstrate being ‘secure in his masculinity’ by rejecting it – by being genderless, useless eunuchs like us.”

    • Ehhh – photography is cool. I’d be happy to go hunting with a camera – so long as I’m allowed to carry along a bang stick, just in case. I’m not willing to hunt with a camera if firearms are banned.

      • used to always carry a camera..preferably video…but also carrying a gun tends to keep you in your comfort zone…remember walking up on a brahma bull in the fog while taking a shortcut across a pasture one morning…an unsettling moment as I circled carefully away never turning my back on him…

  8. and every time a mountain lion wanders into a town or city and eats someone’s small yappy dog out here in Northern Cal, the local enlightened demand SWAT hunt the poor beast down.

    • Happy ending… along with some scattered skeletal remains, all that was found along the trail was a pair of feces- laden underwear, a gnawed-up backpack, the deceased’s off -road bicycle, and fresh cougar tracks.

    • We just had a friend in Southlake Tx lose their dog to what they assume was a bobcat.

      Let the dog out in the AM shortly after sunrise, heard a loud cat growl then some dog yelps, ran outside and saw the cat dragging their dog into brush cover behind their property.

      • Well, if it was dragging the dog off into the brush it was either a bobcat or a small mountain lion. I seriously doubt it was the housecat from down the street.

  9. Truly amazing that some apartment dwelling KAREN’s think these puma’s are endangered,
    At my place in the beautiful state of MONTANA, I have photos of these cats everywhere on my trail cams. Got 5 standing together in front of a container in my camp I keep gear in. They even follow us around the place. They even have a den about 500 yds from my RV. Another thing, if you’ve never tried it, cougar meat is deeelisches.
    Take that all you KAREN’S

    • Affirmative on the trail cams!

      About 15 years ago, in my area, winter weather brought the cougars into the outskirts of town, hunting and killing domestic cats and dogs and threatening people out walking / jogging. They are an apex predator who is not afraid of Man and will take a smaller person or child if they can attack from behind.

      Been there and done that…nice, light meat…tastes a lot like chicken.

      Attention Karens of the World…Montana has plenty of “cats” to go around.

  10. All the hypocrites from the party insensitive to abortion and infanticide who do not approve of hunting will have to go pound sand.

  11. We have the Florida Panther. A subspecies. Rare, shy and verboten to hunt. I’ve never seen one, but my Dad did. Twice. I did hear one screaming one night when I was around 12 and walking home from a friend’s house. Everything I had heard was correct. It sounded like a woman being murdered. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Really. I felt it. I ran the last couple of miles home. (When I tell you guys I grew up in the woods; I mean deep in the woods.) That began my campaign for a centerfire handgun with my parents. It took another six years before I wrapped my hand around that S&W 4″ 19. Nice revolver. Pinned barrel. Countersunk chambers. I never touched the action. Just put a pair of Pachmayers on it. Wish I had it today. Oh! Not opposed to killing cats, or much of anything else. I’ve taken a couple of bobcats to the taxidermist.

    • So THIS is what got locked up in moderation jail… the place has really gone to shit since lil ‘d and miner bought their way in as majori shareholders !

    • i’ve seen those “panther crossing” signs. they usually add something like “only 63 left.”

    • remember seeing some bobcats kept in pens at boy scout camp…one night somebody snuck down there and cut them all loose…

  12. Censored again. I didn’t curse. All I did was tell a story about the Florida panther.

    • @Gadsden Flag

      Maybe the censor program thought you were referencing the little, old, blue-haired cougars that prowl the colleges and old-folk’s homes in Florida…?

      (apologies…couldn’t stop myself)

      • Old Guy, some of those cougars are hot. None of them have blue hair anymore. Think breast implants and liposuction.

        • There’s nothing wrong with a little c-section scar. Plus, that means there wasn’t trauma inflicted on the vag. Moderation won’t let me spell it out, like it’s a bad word.

        • @Gadsden Flag

          Finally got back to reading TTAG comments (been busy with Life all morning).

          After reading your response…I guess it’s my warped senseless humor that made me envision a sun-burned California prune with silicone injections to round out the wrinkles, a bit ‘o botox to paralyze the wobbly bits followed by a severe vacuuming of what remains.

          That said…
          Smitty, an older Officer I worked with decades ago, used to say…”I prefer older women…they’re grateful as hell, won’t tell and don’t swell”.

    • I’m surprised how many times I have cursed on this site and have had nothing done about it. Don’t you dare spell out Pu$$y though! I’m trying to clean up my posts but it’s hard when talking about the brain dead dementia addled resident of ours and his duh mass goons.

  13. I didn’t realize that Montana had ended their years long string of demtard governors. Congrats to Big Sky Co.

    • Yeah, we finally got tired of Democrat Governor / Presidential wanna-be’s laundering Democrat donor money through their election campaigns.

  14. I go back and forth on this sort of stuff.

    I wonder if the best thing a conservative politician can do is keep a low-profile: refuse to acknowledge or admit to anything and stick to your three or four talking points that poll well. And for all that is good and righteous, do NOT hold press conferences. Just make sure you are smiling in public or at your political office, sound empathetic and nice, and call it good. After all, it supposedly worked for Biden who, during his campaign, only emerged from his basement a few times and basically never talked to the press.

    Think of it like the Fifth Amendment right to be silent. You should not talk to law enforcement investigators (when you are a suspect) because they will hold almost everything against you. Similarly, when you are a conservative candidate (which means the Far Left press considers you a criminal suspect), you should not talk to the press who will hold almost everything against you.

    • Glenn Youngkin cracked the code on how to run a successful campaign in enemy territory. We’ll see how he does as governor.

    • kind of hard for ANY conservative or GOP politician to stay off “the radar”
      when 5000+ lefty/lib radars and most of the owners of the internet social media are hunting you down each nano second!

    • “I wonder if the best thing a conservative politician can do is keep a low-profile”

      So … you’re wondering if conservatives should live in shame for wrongthink? If you’re not proud of being a conservative, then what are you doing?

      And your idea of living a fake forced smiles life is just as ridiculous.

      • Call it Biden politics. It worked for a demented old fool, it should work for somebody with most of their faculties and not prone to vacuous statements and outright egregious lies.

  15. A comment about a local family who lost their pet dog to a bobcat gets held for moderation, then removed?
    What’s up with the post removals here on TTAG?

  17. A comment about a local family who lost a pet dog to a wild animal gets held for moderation, then removed?
    What’s up with the post removals here on TTAG?

  18. Why is it even news that someone (even a governor) went hunting?

    I admit, I have an incredible soft spot for big cats, and wouldn’t willingly hunt one. But if the governor (or anyone else) wants to legally hunt them, that’s his business not mine. It’s certainly not the business of WaPo or Mother Jones.

    • if they’re legal to hunt there’s usually a reason for it…they can do a real number on livestock…

  19. James I dated Rnee’for four years after my divorce. She was stunningly beautiful. Hair almost to her waist. Masters degree. Well traveled. Her mother was from Belgium. He scar didn’t’t bother me. (Besides, she was a freek after bottle of wine.) But, $400 dinners every weekend cut into my Randall knife budget. So there was that. And she was a vegetarian. So there was that. She hated it when I brought a dead deer to her house.i answer to no one now. I recommend it highly.

    • Being 6′ 1″ and around 220lbs, I’ve always gone for tall, fit women, with swimmers bodies. When they’ve had children, it’s usually natural childbirth.

      I been with a few smaller women who’ve had a C-section, not a fan.

      Got a divorce in my 40s and enjoying another aspect of life now. 😉

      • Keep dancing 🤡

        You should go to The Truth About Trolls, you may be able to contribute something useful on there.

        Remember, I command you to dance homophobic🤡!
        🤣

      • avatar Geoff "A day without an obsessed, obviously brain-damaged and mentally-ill demented troll (who deserves to live in New Jersey) PR

        He has no interest in screwing you either, obsessed, obviously brain-damaged and mentally-ill demented troll (who deserves to live in New Jersey).

        And hands off your daughter… 🙂

      • Hey everybody, look. It’s TTAG’s resident closet case and bitchmade coward Geoff. How’s life going for the bottom 1%, fat boi?

  20. Okay, so I broke my vow and came back to TTAG. (I did say it was going to be hard to break the habit…was a daily visitor & commenter for 11 years, even wrote a handful of articles just because I felt like it.)

    This comment section reminds me of why I left. Staying far away from the toxic dumpster fire that follows every article was a great decision, and I intend to stick with it.

    • This is not the airport so you do not have to announce your departure. Buh-bye, 🤡.

    • Oh man we’re so sorry to see you leave, Ing. Your comments were always so hard hitting, necessary and, most of all, relevant. The comment section is really going to miss your excellent contributions…

      Said no one, ever! Lol 👋🤡!

      • avatar Geoff "A day without an obsessed, obviously brain-damaged and mentally-ill demented troll (who deserves to live in New Jersey) PR

        “Your comments were always so hard hitting, necessary and, most of all, relevant.”

        Compared to your diarrhea, they are, ‘tiny’.

        (Very tiny, I’ll bet! 🙂 )

  21. Animal rights activists are racists, where’s the outcry over all the dead possums and skunks on display along the roadsides killed by motorists?
    The flattened minority needs a voice.

  22. “An anonymous report? Did these concerned citizens also slip the WaPo’s Joshua Partlow details of the governor’s secret ties with Russia and how they helped him steal an election?”

    Are you suggesting that this report is incorrect?

    “Gianforte’s press secretary, Brooke Stroyke, confirmed on Monday that the governor had hunted the mountain lion. She said he had a valid license, drove the lion up into a tree and shot it on public land.”

    Maybe you should take a more careful look at those ties to Russia, then.

  23. We really need to get together an effort to transplant a bunch of these critters to liberal urban paradises that are filled with dazzling sophisticates.

    Just think of the urban renewal we could accomplish if we took a couple of grizz, a couple packs of wolves, and, oh, a dozen big cats down to San Francisco? Suddenly, there would be no more homeless on the streets. They’d find lodging somewhere, pretty darn quick. Needles and feces would no longer appear on the streets – at least not human feces. Pedestrians would move with a purpose, no longer wearing their stupid ear buds and playing with their phones. There would be no more mental cases blocking traffic as they tried to preach to their invisible debate partner in the middle of the street.

    So many problems, solved.

    One of the problems solved would be these left-wing gasbags prattling on and on about hunting. They’d go silent once they became the prey.

      • Why do you support animal abuse? 🤔

        I spent a few summer on M. Vineyard and Nantucket back in the late ’70s, great memories. Those places have REALLY gone downhill since then.

  24. Congrats to the Governor on a successful hunt. Cougar is great tasting. I have not yet had the honor to shoot one, however I have eaten Cougar / Mountain lion at local Sportsman Assn game feeds. Who cares what the leftists say. They are the ones who eat meat from Safeway where no animals were harmed. Yes, they believe that.

  26. Shooting a cat out of a tree is as much of a fair sport as shooting fish in a barrel. There is no sport in it, none.

    • … But maybe I am wrong. I think I am wrong here. Shooting any animal, is not fair, because adding a 10x scope to a rifle that can hit something hundreds of yards away, is inherently “not fair.” But maybe is supposed to be this way, because “man” was born inherently… wayyyyyyyyy… wayyyyyyy… smarter than other creatures. I mean, which other creatures on earth could engineer and fabricate a precision rifle? So … Maybe my thinking it is unfair, is actually “fair” because life is unfair, and because man was made this way. Man was made, understanding, absorbing knowledge, and expressing curiosity to such a degree, that he can fashion tools where other creatures cannot, and trying to deprive man of this ability is actually making it “unfair” for man. Creatures are equipped with weapons. Horns. Fangs. Claws. Etc. Humans are equipped with minds. Minds that create weapons.

      Long story short… It’s fair! Eat it leftist hippies was queervowashpo.

  29. I’m all for hunting (even though I have never done it myself). But shooting it after dogs chased it up a tree is pretty weak.

    • That is hardly done with the ease that it sounds like. Neither the cat nor the dogs are lolling about leisurely strolling to their destination. They are running flat out and you are running flat out but considering that you only have two legs to their four, it doesn’t cut it. The cat is the one that decides to tree. It could take a stand on ground as some other animals do when chased with dogs such as black bear. Or just keep running

      By the time one arrives at the treed animal, a cool steady shot is out of the question. It takes a while for the pounding heart and wildly pumping lungs to subside to something approaching normal. And typically, you have not been running on a groomed golf course but through very rugged, brushy terrain which is why it is necessary to use dogs. Cats are elusive. That means they don’t like to hang around humans who are hunting them. It is only on very rare occasions when someone is hunting cats that they somehow manage to stumble upon one and be able to take it. Part of hunting is being successful. That means using some means to take the game. One might say that sneaking up on a herd of elk is unsportsmanlike too. Or using a helicopter to get into an area where there are moose as opposed to hiking for seven days to get to the area where there are moose and then not being able to pack the animal out because it would take two weeks to back pack the animal out of the area.
      Or using night vision to hunt feral hogs in areas where they are extremely destructive to farm acreage.

      There are all kinds of alibis that non-hunters throw out due to ignorance of actual hunting.

  30. Lefties seem to be particularly in a snit because he shot it after dogs had chased it into a tree. In truth, this is the only practical way to hunt mountain lions. Unless you’re some kind of mythical Indian tracker, you’re chance of seeing a big cat, much less shooting it, are pretty much nil without dogs.

  33. Read the truth. Had no permit. Illegal to use hounds on the land he used them on. Sorry man, I’m no left tard but this isn’t the first time he’s been in the crosshairs for his hunting tactics, and before he took office it was illegal to use hounds here due to the babies often being tracked instead. If you don’t know the history of hunting from our European settlers, then maybe brush up on it. Imagine if some peasant hunted the kings mountain lion… starting to get the picture now? It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t give a fuck about Montana and just used the state to get in office so he can do shit like this. This is what happens when you let a CA native run for “republican” in Montana.

    TTAG likes having wool pulled over their eyes.

    • He’s also a fucking nutcase for creationism. ALSO… lol… stated that his russian holdings would be placed in a blind trust if elected… still waiting for that move there honest greg… This fucking tool played that “russian aggression” card against Obama when he has millions invested over there and STILL has it over there. Right now with all that’s going on, still has it over there.

      Don’t protect this man or blame the left for pointing out his shortcomings… they are not wrong, lol. Maybe look inside your own party before you check a box just because it says “republican” on it. Fucking party clowns.

      • So your candidate lost, did he? Perhaps YOU should read the article which stated that he handed the tag and collar to the game warden. Either the game warden isn’t doing his job because I didn’t see anything in the article about the guy getting busted for illegal use of dogs or hunting where it isn’t allowed or any other game violations.

        • I don’t have a candidate. There is no point in voting and I could care less. I was simply pointing out the wing nut TTAG dick riding and it’s flaws.

          You read one article and you know the laws? Do some fucking research.

  34. What a bunch of truly ignorant, virtue-signaling opinions. Besides they’d probably wet their pants if they encountered a lion on their own. Probably wouldn’t mind if a lion snacked on their little dog either.

    “Yellowstone National Park” mountain lion? No such thing. Lions can go where they want. The National Park doesn’t own any lions. Lions have territories that can range hundreds of miles.

    “Rare species”? Hardly. Not listed as endangered. Hunted as a predator species. Researchers from many agencies collar many different animals to collect data. Nothing special about a collared animal.

    “on public land north of Yellowstone National Park”. So what? All of Montana is north of Yellowstone National Park since 95% of Yellowstone is in Wyoming. Probably half the land in Montana is public. Lions can roam anywhere.

    “shot on public land”. So, no complaints if shot on private land?

  35. Ever see what one mountain lion can do to a rancher’s cattle? If it was an endangered species that posed no threat I could see the outrage, but this was a predator and could pose a significant danger to livestock as well as humans. The hunt was legal, the animal killed was a threat and the hunters used safe methodology in the process. Get off the Governor’s back.

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