Snares don't cut off air. They cut off blood flow.

Im just not getting what there is to be skeptical about. The location? Or the way the cat was killed? If Cougars arnt protected why would they need a story? I’m sure I’m missing something.

The guy that found it said it broke the snare and he was not the trapper who caught it. (ACCORDING TO THE STORY with the pictures.) So, I thought maybe he found it, cut the snare and made up the story so he could keep it. I didn't know it had laid there 10 days and it hadn't broken the snare, but rather the attachment to whatever it was anchored to. I knew a cat snared where that one was on the neck wasn't going far from the catch site, and it didn't, but apparently far enough to flip or roll or run out of sight of the set (maybe down hill or something).

I believe that, they have a lot more pull than a coyote, I could see a stake less than 37" coming out

Now a I get it.

I've snared a lot of stuff, but never a mountain lion. I'll tell you this for certain, there is nothing in any of those pics that look anything like a catch circle that would be made by a lion.

Cats dont leave much of a catch circle in a neck snare-they go down fast due to their physiology compared to canines.
Cannot be compared a catch circle made by something alive and struggling for hours in a foothold or live holding snare.
The catch circle is in the second pic.

I say the guy took it from the trapper and made up a story.

Supposedly laying dead for 10 days-hogwash.-look at the fur,and not even a peck from a raven-more BS.

Listen to ADC...... no catch circle because the cat was not found exactly by where it was snared. Close, but not on the X. The trapper was missing the snare for 10 days. Gun deer season just opened in Iowa this last weekend. That is why it was found. The trapper did not make a huge effort to find the snare because he thought it was a deer. Had those hunters stold the lion from the trapper 10 days previous and kept it secret until deer opener, they darn sure would not bring it back and tell everyone they found it that close to the snare location.They would have said they found it a long way away. ....... keep your conspiracy theories in Canada

Your story sounds more like a conspiracy theory-no way that cat was dead laying iout for 10 days.

Your story sounds more like a conspiracy theory or typical USA blow-no way that cat was dead laying iout for 10 days.

Why couldn't it have been laying there for 10 days? Not like it has been hot here in Iowa. Roadkill deer lay around for weeks around here and nothing touches them. And we have a lot of deer. One laid on the edge of the road near my house for a week and nothing touched it or it decomposed.

Yes, it was. I know the trapper personally, and I know the cop that responded to the call when they found it. It was slipping, likely only the skull to be salvaged.

Ha! See what I mean? LOL

Doesn’t take much of a reason bash the USA!