The Pennsylvania Game Commission says it was a hoax.

But the Solanco farmer who says he was attacked by a cougar and shot and wounded another is sticking to his story.

And sightings of furtive large cat-like creatures in the Ninepoints area of Sadsbury Township, which began six weeks ago, continue, with one as recently as Monday morning.

"Regardless of the specifics" of the farmer's story, "I have a very anxious community that we have to deal with," state Rep. Bryan Cutler of Peach Bottom said this morning.

Meanwhile, the incident has stirred the Plain Sect community.

"It's dividing a lot of Amish — whether to believe him or not," says an Amish man who lives in the area.

Some are skeptical of the hair-raising assault described by Samuel Fisher, 42, of 92 Windy Top Road, Christiana. Fisher says he shot one cougar on the afternoon of Oct. 9 and was attacked by another that jumped out of a tree. He said he grappled with the large cat, stabbing it with a pocketknife, and also saw a third couger that ran off.

Other Amish are angry at the Game Commission for what they feel is a dismissal of the sightings, the Amish man said.

"There's too many sightings and too many happenings. We know they're there," said another Amish man in the area. "Whether one attacked Sam Fisher...we'll have to work through that one."

Fisher, interviewed by a reporter Monday after the Game Commission said he was lying and was considering charging him with making a false report to authorities, was not backing away from his story.

"What do they think caused my wounds?" he said. "And what gets me is, they're saying 'hoax,' so nobody's paying attention to the fact that there are big cats running around down there."

The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, a statewide group that continues to believe there are multiple cougars in the area, will meet with Plain Sect neighbors tonight to outline what they can and cannot legally do if they encounter a cougar, said Stephen Mohr, a Bainbridge resident who serves as USP's president.

"You can't afford to have a lynch mob going out hunting every woodlot trying to kill a mountain lion. They've been told (by the Game Commission) that if they kill one, they will get arrested," Mohr said today.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Bart Township Fire Hall on Route 896 in Georgetown.

Mohr said his organization has received reliable calls of sightings of cougars from no less than eight individuals going back about six weeks. The first sighting was about 11 miles from where Fisher says he had his encounter off Mount Pleasant Road, but the remainder have been in the Ninepoints area, said Mohr, who formerly was a Pennsylvania Game Commissioner.

In addition, farmers in the area reported one horse whose rear was clawed severely. Near where the Fisher incident was reported, free-range poultry had disappeared, Mohr said.

Mohr said he talked with the Lancaster General Hospital emergency-room doctor who treated Fisher for his injuries. "He told me face to face that this man was attacked by a large animal and it was not a canine," Mohr said, adding that the doctor then called state police and suggested they respond to the scene.

Of Fisher, Mohr said, "I can't put any holes in his story," though he said the sequence of events may not have been accurately related.

Mohr said he remains convinced there are cougars in the area and that they were released by humans.

He was asked if one or more would eventually be killed or captured as proof.

"It'll be a matter of time — or they will plain disappear."


Staff writer Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029.