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Is it possible that a wild cat is preying on livestock in the rural community of Wild Peach in Brazoria County?

KHOU-TV

Over 40 goats have been killed by something in Brazoria County.

Something has frightened Pam Stuckey enough to keep her rifles close at hand.

“If it’s at a distance, we can use this one.  If it’s up close, then we can use the shotgun,” Stuckey said.

She and her neighbors say that some kind of wildcat is attacking their livestock, mainly goats, killing almost 40 of them to date.

She hasn’t lost any goats, but her neighbors have.

“I’ve lost seven, total,” said Glen Swanner.

He sets snares, “It’ll catch their head or their body and when they start walking away, it pulls tight on them.”

He even put a camera up, with no luck.

He shot a paw print recently.  Aside from the carcasses, it is the only evidence of the predator they have.

Texas Wildlife Services sent people into Brazoria County to look into this but they couldn’t find any evidence of cats.  Instead, they found signs of coyotes.

They have set out traps and are now waiting to see what they can snare.

Some said the state needs to do more to capture this problem.

“I’m very concerned because if it runs out of goats, there’s a lot of children that live around here, and I couldn’t see losing kids,” said Swanner.

The last goat killed was last week, and as long as the threat remains, so will the rifle and gun.

Cat or coyote, folks want to capture it before more is lost.