Concord Mascot Loses Tail in Hunting Accident

By John Dough

On April 1, 2018

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Pictured: Roar in his prime, pre-injury

Friday evening, beloved Concord mascot Roar was shot and wounded by a hunter that mistook Roar for a wild mountain lion.

Due to a major influx in mountain lion sightings in the area, local authorities contracted hunters to help reduce the mountain lion population. Because of this, police have warned the public, especially Concord students and faculty wearing mountain lion apparel, to avoid the woods out of danger of getting caught in the hunters’ shock and awe campaign.

Thought to have been extinct, Appalachian mountain lion sightings began to steadily increase since early 2017, with over 500 sightings reported just last month. No one is sure why they have returned to the state, but it is clear the elusive predators have no plans of leaving. Hunters have reported the mountain lions’ numbers growing more and more each day, and they appear to be growing more organized.

The hunter who shot Roar was 42 year-old Hunter Hunt, a Princeton resident and avid hunter for over 30 years. After seeing a mountain lion descend from the hills behind his house and tear down his empty chicken coup, Hunt signed on to help hunt the predators.

“The buggers have been everywhere lately and have been eating all of the deer and terrorizing local pets,” Hunt told the Concordian. “To be quite frank, I don’t care for them cougars. All they do is go around killing defenseless animals.”

Friday afternoon, Hunt set off into the woods around Athens with a team of four other hunters and their pack of six hound dogs to respond to recent mountain lion sightings in that area. Around 8 p.m., Hunt left the group to smoke his second pack of cigarettes, and that is when he saw it.

“I could not believe my eyes,” Hunt said. “There he was, just standing there, surrounded by cougars. It looked like he was teaching them or something . . . making gestures with his arms. I swear I could hear them chanting something. I can’t be certain, but it sounded like ‘BE AGGRESSIVE. BE, BE AGGRESSIVE.’

“Seeing as he was the leader, I grabbed my rifle and took the shot,” Hunt added. The bullet cut clean through Roar’s tail, severing it from the costume. According to Hunt, the mountain lions scattered before he could fire off another shot. “I saw the tall one jump up and run away like he was a person or something. Them cougars are getting craftier every day.”

“When I walked over to where they were, all that was left was stuffing,” Hunt added.

Witnesses in the area reported hearing bizarre howling echoing from the woods. According to police, Roar was found limping along Route 20 when a car stopped him and called an ambulance. As the ambulance arrived, bystanders reported Roar struggling with the paramedics trying to carry him into the ambulance.

“He looked like he didn’t want any help or something,” one of the bystanders told the Concordian. “He just kept trying to paw away the paramedics’ hands and crawl back to the woods.”

Paramedics were eventually able to restrain Roar and take him to Princeton Community Hospital, where doctors tended to Roar’s wound. While they were not able to reattach Roar’s severed tail since there was no available stuffing for a transplant, the doctors say the wound has healed very quickly and that Roar would be able to return to campus by Monday. However, police have asked that Roar be kept indoors at all times to prevent future accidents from happening.

“When I found out he was a person and not a mountain lion, I felt real bad, I really did,” Hunt said. “But what was he doing out there with them? I don’t know about you, but that’s awfully suspicious to me. I don’t like our kind meddling with the cougars.”

When asked to comment on what he was doing in the woods Friday evening, Roar began to lick his fur and quietly purr. The Athletic Department has declined to comment on Roar’s activities in the woods.

Update: Police have just reported that Roar went missing from the hospital this morning. Locals report seeing a costumed individual running along Route 20 and into the woods around the same time. We will update the story as necessary.

Editor's Note: Always check your sources.