When these cats started showing up in MO, the official line from MDC was they were all young toms that walked here from South Dakota. Seems the same line was used all over the midwest, which prompted many to wonder......just how many cats are there in South Dakota? That story also strained credulity, which prompted influencers like Derry Brownfield to instill notion they didn't walk here.......they hitched a ride on the back of little green trucks (cheap green Dodge pickups being company car of fish and wildlife and MDC). In other words, they were released. Simply too many of them all of a sudden to fit the official narrative.
I can remember my own parents spotted one by their mailbox. Saw it clear as day. And a buddy of mine telling me he nearly hit one with a grain truck when it ran across the road in front of him. He showed me once where he spotted it. The location was less than a mile from my parent's mailbox, and happened about the same time. And another neighbor telling me a cat wearing a tracking collar was also shot in that same neighborhood. That one went for a ride on a coal train heading east.......tossed off an overpass. And all that took place about 15 years ago.
Word of all this gets out. So then falls back to why would MDC not own up to it? Belief is they wanted to reintroduce them, but didn't want to be liable when a cat killed some little kid waiting for the school bus.....or any other person out in the wild alone.
To this day I doubt MDC would admit they had anything to do with these releases, but there are so many sightings and evidence of them on trail cams to deny they are around.....released or not.
