Surveillance video captures cougar or large house cat w/ surveillance video taken at Allied Waste Services

By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

GALENA, Kan. — Galena police are seeking the help of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to determine if the animal caught on a video surveillance camera at a local business is a cougar or some other large cat, or a common house cat.

The video was taken at Allied Waste Services at 2:32 a.m. on Saturday, July 5. The company is located on old Route 66, east of Galena, but still in Kansas.

The video shows a dark, feline figure walking with a fence in the background and a trash container in the foreground. The cat stops briefly to sniff or lick something on the pavement before continuing out of the camera view.

Police Chief Larry Delmont said he would send the video to the state agency to see whether experts can determine what type of cat is in the video.

Police officer Jerry Dannels was among those viewing the video Wednesday at the Galena Police Station who thought it was a cougar or other large cat, pointing out the muscle tone visible in the video and the cat’s neck.

Dannels and assistant police Chief D.J. Hestand traveled out to try to determine the distance and angle of the camera from the cat. Dannels also posed in the range of the surveillance camera to try to gauge the size of the animal.

After the experiment, Dannels said he was convinced of his initial decision, while Hestand said he was maintaining some healthy skepticism while not ruling out the possibility that the animal is a big domestic cat.

Delmont at the police station watched a loop of the video on a computer.

“I don’t know,” Delmont said. “I just don’t know.”

As he watched the video again and again, Delmont said he was leaning toward thinking that it was a house cat. He said he was eager to find out whether the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks could make a determination from the video.