John Schetzsle was relieved — and a bit alarmed — to find a caged cougar in his yard Tuesday morning.

As he made his way toward the animal, which had carried off his three chickens and two goats over three consecutive nights, it jumped up against the chain-link trap cage and hissed at him, he said.

“It was definitely scary,” he recalled.

The cougar was captured and euthanized later Tuesday morning by the State Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to state biologist Brian Wolfer.

The cat, an 84-pound female who was about 2 years old and more than 6 feet long from nose to tail, was captured using a walk-in style cage trap on the property along Floral Hill Drive near Hendricks Park where it had snatched Schetzsle’s livestock over the weekend.

Though the trap didn’t employ a scent attractant to lure the cougar from far away, it was baited with an old goose wing as well as a piece of venison that, when pulled, caused the cage door to close behind the cougar. Wolfer said the cougar probably had to be inside the 5-foot-high livestock enclosure to see the bait.

Wolfer said the animal wasn’t lactating, indicating that she didn’t have cubs with her.

The cougar was sedated to reduce its stress during transportation to a private rural property near Highway 58. It was still sleeping under sedation when it was killed with a single gunshot to the head, Wolfer said.

“It’s not a fun part of the job,” he said.

A landowner has the legal right to kill a cougar that has caused damage to his livestock, Wolfer said.

Euthanizing an animal isn’t something that the state fish and wildlife department commonly does, “but right up against the city limits, right up against the park, to leave it to the landowner to do something that could potentially go wrong or (result in) a wounded animal just wasn’t acceptable in my mind,” he added.

In explaining the decision to put down the cougar, Wolfer noted that while orphaned cougar cubs may be caught and transferred to zoos, adult cats typically are unable to adjust to captivity.

Also, cougars that have learned to hunt livestock may return to the practice, even if released into another area, he added.

“If you take an animal that’s been known to kill livestock and you move it somewhere else and it ends up killing livestock on somebody else’s property, then you’re basically just giving that problem to somebody else,” he said. “With (this cougar’s) history of killing domestic animals, giving that problem to somebody else wasn’t (a risk) we were willing to take.”

Wolfer said he believes the animal was traveling alone, but the state department set up a trail camera on Tuesday to make sure no other cougars are hunting in the area.

The cougar’s remains were returned to Schetzsle, in accordance with state law, Wolfer said. “In the case of a cougar causing damage, the law does require that we offer it back to the landowner who incurred the damage,” Wolfer said.

Because the cougar was tranquilized, its meat is no longer edible, Wolfer said, but Schetzsle will receive the cougar’s head and hide. Schetzsle said he may turn the remains into a carpet — if he can find a low-cost taxidermist.

But Schetzsle, who has one chicken left after the weekend’s attacks, is more concerned about the additional livestock he says he wants to bring to his small farm, as soon as it’s safe.

“I’m already working on getting two other goats, but they’re not going to be ready until April, so that gives me time to cougar-proof this place,” he said.

While another cougar attack is unlikely, he’ll raise his fences and add electric wire to increase security, he said. He’ll also enclose the chicken area with chain-link fencing and put a door on his goat house.

In the meantime, Schetzsle said, he hopes to show his gratitude to the state fish and wildlife department officials who caught the cougar.

“I’m definitely happy with those guys,” he said. “I’m buying them a dinner and a beer.”

Follow Kelsey on Twitter @kelseythalhofer. Email kelsey.thalhofer@registerguard.com.