Animal at Looking Glass Rock 11/6

Hi all,

This past Saturday, November 6, I was at the South Side of Looking Glass Rock in North Carolina climbing Fat Dog.  At some point in the early afternoon I heard a loud sound off to my left and looked over, assuming it was rockfall.  I was surprised to catch a glimpse of an animal falling down the face.  I only saw it for a moment before it passed behind the trees, but it looked like a pretty big one and we could hear its terrible moaning sounds for a while afterword.  Does anyone know what kind of animal it was?  Does that happen regularly, or is it unusual?  I was a little shaken the rest of the climb after seeing that.

Thanks,

Isaac

It was a hunting dog. I was not there but heard about it from one of my friends. It survived the fall and they carried it out and got it back to the owner but sounds like it was badly hurt.

Yep, Sean Cobourn and friends found the dog. It was very badly injured. Bear hunting dog. Happens alot. I suspect the owner shot it. Vet bills are expensive. :(

Wow, sorry to hear that.  Thanks for the info.

Isaac, I would not have wanted to see that. Sorry you had to. 

Some friends and I found Sally and carried her out. It was a sad way to end our day but it was the right thing to do.  The owner later told us she had passed.

That's sad to hear. My initial thought before reading more was that it was a squirrel. Occasionally but rarely see them jumping from way up, only to climb back up and do it again. 

Damn, that's really sad to hear... was going to guess squirrel.  My tumbling squirrel count at looking glass is up to 3

There's a route at Sunset Park in Chattanooga called Terrier In Trouble. Small terrier ran down the trail, never stopped, went right over the cliff. Many years ago, John Vermont and I were at Jamestown and came across a dog that had fallen off the cliff. Major injuries. It was pitiful. Neither of us had the gumption to put her out of its misery. How would we do it anyway? A huge rock blow to the head? Try to cut her jugular and let her bleed out? It was a terrible situation. We hiked back up and luckily found a ranger and asked if he had a gun. We went back down to the base of the cliff but when we got back down she had passed. 

Mark Casey wrote:

I‘ve always thought that hunting with dogs is lazy and cheating, but then again, I would expect nothing less from most hunters.  I’m pro hunting too.

I'm far more familiar with the hunting community than the climbing community. I'm extremely green when it comes to climbing, but I'm hoping to do some outdoor climbing here in NC soon. I had not created an account, but had been planning on it and decided I wanted to offer some insite into hunting with dogs. I do not have dogs myself, but know several people who do. It has not been something I have always embraced, but the more I've learned about it the more I respect it as an ethical form of hunting.(at least how its practiced here)

1. Terrain- everyone whose ever been in the mountains of western North Carolina know once you step off of a trail you're in a thicket. With this type of terrain it is extremely difficult to spot game. Which is why dogs have traditionally been used here.

2. Animal ID- in our state it is illegal to take a sow with cubs. Once again terrain makes it difficult to confirm if there are cubs, but once treed it is easy to determine if there are cubs present. Then collect your dogs and move on to another location.

3. Dogs- hunters take great pride in their dogs and have a bond most people won't understand. The dogs also love the jobs they do just like any other working dog. No one ever seems to look down their noses at bird hunters when their dogs flush a covey of quail, but hound hunters are often targeted.

4. Efficacy- it is a more effective method of hunting. Our state biologist set the seasons and quotas for the state and expect a certain amount of take. Without dog hunters bear populations would increase leading to more bear/human conflict than we are already seeing.

5. Tradition- I've saved this for last as it isn't really a leg to stand on, but dogs have been used by man to hunt since we domesticated them. North Carolina's state dog is the Plott Hound. There are families that have been hunting with hounds for generations and intend to pass that down for many more. These people love their dogs and the outdoors.

As a side note, bear is tasty. I've only had it a few times thanks to my neighbor in college but it was very good. The fat is also excellent for baking I hear.

I'll climb off my soapbox now. I hate that the dog was injured and ultimately perished from going over the cliff. I know many think that the hunter was probably indifferent to it, but he had more than likely spent years training and hunting with that dog and it's loss will be felt deeply.

All that being said I look forward to doing some climbing, and hope to learn a great deal!

I dont hunt anymore, been a veggie for 14 years, BUT if it wasn't for gun hunters, predator animals wouldn't be afraid of humans and we'd certainly be hunted by them. It's just the way of the world. Sans gun hunters, climbing out in the backwoods would be pretty damn scary.  

Matthew Jaggerswrote:

I dont hunt anymore, been a veggie for 14 years, BUT if it wasn't for gun hunters, predator animals wouldn't be afraid of humans and we'd certainly be hunted by them. It's just the way of the world. Sans gun hunters, climbing out in the backwoods would be pretty damn scary.  

Can you name a single animal that would attack a climbing party in the southeast? I'm most certainly not against hunting but that argument seems very weak. 

Jackson Wrightwrote:

Can you name a single animal that would attack a climbing party in the southeast? I'm most certainly not against hunting but that argument seems very weak. 

It's impossible to say, because they've all been conditioned to stay away and out of sight, but bears and dogs come to mind everytime im camping. You've been to the southeast, no? There's lots of wilderness, and lots of bears and dogs, that luckily are scared of us. Cats too. If you know much about the human body, we're pretty delicate, and most medium sized animals could take us out, if we weren't the barbarians with lethal weapons.

Matthew Jaggerswrote:

It's impossible to say, because they've all been conditioned to stay away and out of sight, but bears and dogs come to mind everytime im camping. You've been to the southeast, no? There's lots of wilderness, and lots of bears and dogs, that luckily are scared of us. Cats too. If you know much about the human body, we're pretty delicate, and most medium sized animals could take us out, if we weren't the barbarians with lethal weapons.

 

Lived here for 23 years of my life, and 17 of those as an avid outdoorsman. We can agree to disagree, the only time a bear (the only animal here that could actually fuck you up) would ever decide to involve themselves with you would be if you were threatening their cubs.

Jackson Wrightwrote:

Lived here for 23 years of my life, and 17 of those as an avid outdoorsman. We can agree to disagree, the only time a bear (the only animal here that could actually fuck you up) would ever decide to involve themselves with you would be if you were threatening their cubs.

Thats because you're no longer considered food to them. You're a huge threat, and they learned that from the many generations of us hunting and killing them.  And dogs could 100% kill you, and so could Bob cats, they just happen to be super smart and know better than to try.

John Tex wrote:

I know for a fact that a bobcat couldn't kill me. I mean some dude killed a 40 pound mountain lion with his bare hands in Ft Collins a few years ago and bobcats aren't any larger than that. But considering how much you like your soft catches, I'm not surprised one could kill you. 

Good luck with that, and your ankles!

Jackson Wrightwrote:

Lived here for 23 years of my life, and 17 of those as an avid outdoorsman. We can agree to disagree, the only time a bear (the only animal here that could actually fuck you up) would ever decide to involve themselves with you would be if you were threatening their cubs.

tell that to the youngin that was drug out of their hammock by their head one night not far from the red. Same black bears we have around here. Hard to threaten cubs when you're asleep.

John Tex wrote:

I know for a fact that a bobcat couldn't kill me. I mean some dude killed a 40 pound mountain lion with his bare hands in Ft Collins a few years ago and bobcats aren't any larger than that. But considering how much you like your soft catches, I'm not surprised one could kill you. 

that was a young cat in poor condition. You grab ahold of a full grown bobcat in good health... good luck brah. Maybe it doesn't kill you but I doubt you handle it in the way you're blowing hard about

Talk about thread drift. The reality is that the most dangerous creature(s) out there that causes more fatalities than other other is bees, wasps and hornets. There are multiple cases of climbers being killed by various members of order Hymenoptera.

Great thread drift!  Good thing for this lady bobcats are no longer killers. Lol

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html

David Tysingerwrote:

Great thread drift!  Good thing for this lady bobcats are no longer killers. Lol

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html

Lol

And that looks like a very small one, if it actually is one.