This scene happened at Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge. Five coyotes sent these two cougar kittens up on a fence, and the entire ordeal lasted over an hour.
Whatever it is, it’s still a predatory mammal of the order Carnivora.
That means most of its ancestors killed bigger things than sea lion pups to survive. Furthermore, it’s some kind of real bulldog, and those dogs were used to control half-wild medieval cattle, bait bulls, catch wild boar, and bay up brown bears. They have been bred for powerful jaws and strong prey drive.
Even if this dog is sweet and gentle with people and other dogs, it is still going to have instincts and the prowess to be an effective predator.
Without training to teach them to avoid hunting certain animals, most dogs will hunt them.
My guess is that certain quarters will be spouting about how dangerous this dog is.
This particular dog not that dangerous.
She’s no more dangerous than this one:
The only difference is Miley killed a baby rabbit, which is from a species that isn’t protected by law, and this bulldog killed a baby sea lion, which is protected by federal law.
Many people get freaked out when dogs exhibit predatory behavior that actually results in the kill.
I find this quite interesting, because no one seems to get freaked out when cats do it.
And cats do it far more often and far more proficiently than any dog.
Predatory behavior, which people often incorrectly call “predatory aggression,” is something you sign up for when you bring one of these animals into your home.
And while it’s certainly true that dogs wind up forming very strong bonds people, they still have their heritage within the species of Canis lupus and the order Carnivora.
However, it’s pretty easy to train dogs to leave certain species alone.
And if they don’t want the dog killing sea lion pups, all they will have to do is invest a little time and effort into training it.
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Having seen dogs kill things in the wild my entire life, I’m really quite shocked at the reaction of the people in this video.
This is so foreign to me that it make my stomach churn a bit.
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If you think this is unnatural behavior for a dog to hunt sea lions, here’s a video of a relatively close of the domestic dogs targeting the pups of another eared seal species:
