[The oh boy, happy day reporting is about as hard to take as the photo of the dead cougar. Here’s the headline the mainstream paper gave this vile act of murder: ]
“Darby girl bags her first mountain lion”
Taylor Wohlers of Darby poses with the mountain lion she shot last week while hunting with her father, Ben, near Sula. She has been mountain lion hunting with her dad since she was three years old.
It was something she never forgot.
The excitement of the chase through snow, over rocks and up steep mountains. The sound of the dogs baying at the base of the tree. And then finally, the sight of a snarling mountain lion high up in the tree.
From that first hunt seen from a backpack carried by her father, Wohlers has been on well over 20 mountain lion hunts in the past decade.
All through those years, she counted the days until she would actually be old enough to have a hunting license.
She turned 12 on Feb. 12 and bought her first license that very day.
Montana state law required that she wait another five days to actually use her mountain lion tag. By then, the state-set quota for mountain lions in the southern Bitterroot was down to one female.
Her dad, Ben Wohlers, was determined to do his best to help his daughter fill her first tag.
On Wednesday – exactly two weeks after she turned 12 – Taylor was called into the school office and told to grab her snow gear.
Her dad had found a mountain lion near Sula.
“It had come down and crossed in my tire tracks,” Ben Wohlers said. “I knew it was close. When I turned the dogs out, they were on it right away. She’s been on a lot longer chases than this one.”
The longest chase the father and daughter enjoyed covered close to 11 miles as they walked from the lookout tower at Gird Creek to the bottom of the mountain.
*****
After the much shorter hike Wednesday, Taylor remembers seeing the lion snarling up in the tree.
“I stood there and looked at it for a little while,” Taylor said. “And then I used my dad as a rest to take aim.”
Her father sat down on the ground and she placed the barrel of the AR-15 .223-caliber rifle across his shoulder.
A short time later, the mountain lion hunting season in the Bitterroot officially came to an end.
“Ideally, we would have looked for a big tom, but that part of the season was closed,” Ben Wohlers said. “This was the last one in the valley for this year.”
Taylor had only been legally old enough to hunt in Montana for two weeks.
This wasn’t the first time that she’s hunted. In the summer of 2012, she traveled to Alaska to shoot a black bear while being filmed by the Skull Bound TV production company.
She used a .300 Winchester Magnum to kill the bear at 168 yards.
Her dad took her to Canada last year in search of a mountain lion, but they couldn’t find the right one there.
Last week’s hunt was one that neither father nor daughter will ever forget.
“I want a life-size mount,” Taylor told her dad inside his taxidermy shop filled with life-size mounts of a wide variety of critters.
Wohlers looked at his daughter and smiled.
“That’s probably what we’ll do then,” he said. “We’ll probably do a life-size mount for you.”
Exposing the Big Game 
I’m speechless!
Sooo disgusting!
Another fucking serial killer! WTF is wrong with these people?! I despise them all with a passion!
I agree! Cruelty to animals is one of the earliest signs of “sociopath” behavior. By her parents, her town, etc. condoning, participating, organizing this disgusting bullshit, I feel they’re breeding a whole new generation of, well…as you said.
Monsters.
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.
I must get to your website, as Wolves are my Soul, as well… Manaste, Blessed Be, etc ^~^
~ Thank you Shawna ~
I’m glad to meet another soulmate
Namaste & Blessed Be
YOU are beautiful! ❤
I'm doing all this from my mobile, so I could not stay on your page long, but…now I can see where my passion/voice for Wolves & all animals could possibly go!
I'm a total novice on the web (umm, yeah…did you catch how I misspelled "Namaste"??! 😀 ), so once again, kudos to you for what you're doing, I have a better sense of direction, now.
NAMASTE & Blessed Be <3! ^~^ Arooooo!
Thank you once more & keep at it. We are such a large group of wolf-lovers here on Wordrpess,, I’m sure you’ll fit right in.
Namaste
Reblogged this on CreekWaterWoman and commented:
Sickening humans.
Killing wildlife, teaching children to kill wildlife, is a wholesome family activity? Would a camera been just as memorable? Fair chase, with rifle and scope and dogs? Was the lion a willing participant in this fair chase game? Could the lion shoot back?
Hounding is anything but “fair chase.”
The excitement of the hunt? How about the terror of the hunt for our friends this beautiful wild being just doing his job carbon sequestering and being with his family? What happened to REAL FAMILY VALUES?
We are contributing to the delinquency of minors for even showing this disgusting and scary image.
This fat little kid is hopeless. Been doing it with Daddy since she was 3. Let’s hope she’s marginalized, though probably not since it’s Montana. She will be spewing suffering and cruelty on the landscape for the next 60 or 70 years. Depressing.
I left a few remarks on the Missoulian.
Great, post them here as well
I am so angry about this! Its disgusting and unspeakable! These people are monsters, not humans. Its too bad the lion didn’t defend herself.
I am absolutely appalled that the newspaper & town are praising this act of cruelty & COWARDICE, let alone her Father since the age of 3??? Knowing the statistics, this 12 year old girl will & most likely HAS committed other heinous acts upon animals that WOULD NOT be “ok” to the general public. Exposure to that kind of detachment regarding killing, at such an early age (& then REPEATEDLY) doesn’t bode well at all for relatives, neighbors, & ALL future children (OURS or, God forbid, HERS). I am sorry to say this IS a big deal! Feeling “thrilled & excited” when you see a helpless victim, knowing YOU are in power…playing “GOD” w any being’s LIFE…these are all sociopathic traits that almost EVERY serial killer has described as being a driving force that gave them the “courage” for their first “real one”. We can only hope enough backlash will make this poor soul hang her head in shame, THINK about it, feel actual REMORSE…and not only NEVER do it again, but come out on the other side of the issue! I pray for Divine Justice, as collectively, our world has NONE for the Animal Kingdom. Shame on the human race for continuing to breed MONSTERS.
Shame on them for BEING monsters.
Word. 😥
Beautifully said Shawna Alexander. I agree 100 %. It made me sick to see that beautiful cat killed for no reason.
awesome response
Now multiply this poor little fool exponentially – I hate to be too cruel and retract my claws a bit because this girl is still a child, but I hope someday she will learn to think for herself.
Hunting with dogs is no more sport than shooting fish in a barrel. What a disgusting little girl.
She might be still a child but hardly a sweet innocent child. Yuk!
Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
A clear example of parents brainwashing their kids.
She is the same damn girl who shot a black bear a couple years ago.
She shot this animal because she could and it was the last one of the season.
She is disgusting, heartless and cruel.
And her father is worse.
He is a total piece of shit for being proud of his “little girl” because she wants a life size mount.
Taylor you just dont get it. So let me put it in words you will understand.
Almost anyone can learn to shoot and kill.
What if someone one day decided little girls were ok to hunt and be killed. Do you think you could outrun and out think them?
No you could not. You would be as dead as the mountain lion.
You, your parents, and everyone else would say you are too young and defenseless and how could you have a fair chance against these people hunting you and that they are heartless and cruel.
But you know what?
There are people just like you and they wouldnt care and they would kill you just to have a life size mount too.
Think about that the next time you kill an animal minding its own business and causing you no harm and paying you no mind.
Dead is dead whether you are an animal or a human. Life ends.
Would you want your life to end Taylor? Yeah I didnt think so.
Neither did the mountain lion.
well said.
hmmm. so it was something she never forgot eh? It was something that cougar never forgot either, it was his last thought, his last fear, his last breath, and his last right to life. She, a little 12 year old, decided it was her right to take his life…that it was her God given right to end his life that day, to take him from his family and his joy of living. She has no innocence, she has blood on her hands..happily and willingly she has his blood on her hands. Glad my 12 year old is not that arrogant and cold hearted.
Yuck
And what if one day, she wakes up and decides, I think I’ll take my dad’s .300 Winchester Mangnum to school with me and shoot that bitch that stole my boyfriend Johnny from me. I’ll show her who’s boss. I’ll show her what happens when someone steals from me. I’ll kill everyone and then everyone will know how powerful I am.
Yep — that’s the future. Kids born and raised without a conscience, taught to take a life at 3 years of age so one day they can grow up, and take a human life. Good job daddy. You should get the father of the year award.
And people shake their heads wondering how is it possible that a child could walk into a school and shoot up their classmates and teachers.
Srsly?
I agree wholeheartedly with everyone above. The detachment here, seeing animals as “things” , therefore “lesser than” humans, has catapulted our planet into blatant torture & enslavement of them for our own pleasures & entertainment….it is completely apathy , and the majority of the population turning their heads. The phrase, ” … stood there and looked at it for a little while…” , especially ,chills me, making me wonder WHAT she thought about as she looked at “it”? I’m so dismayed over this…sick.