FORT MYERS, Fla. — Dale Williams lives in the Dunbar neighborhood and said a bobcat jumped across his fence while he was in his backyard one night, coming just feet away from him.
“[It] looked at me and just [growling noises] and then walked right passed me and went towards my birds,” he said.
Williams said he was lucky when he saw that bobcat last year, because it hopped back over the fence shortly afte. But he said his chickens weren’t so fortunate years before.
“I used to come outside and I’d see feathers everywhere and stuff like that and I’m like wow, a hawk must’ve killed one of my chicks,” he said.
He said he’s found at least a dozen dead chickens over the years.
“But then when I actually seen it with my own two eyes. I knew it had to be the bobcat doing it,” he said.
He hasn’t seen any dead chickens recently, since he put them inside a pen, but he still has his small dogs to worry about.
His neighbor Wilmaree Henderson said she saw one in her backyard Tuesday night. Last week her grandson took a picture. It’s blurry but she said it shows a bobcat lying down behind her house.
“Everybody’s really, really scared!” she said.
She has a solution in mind.
“Cut down all those trees! Those big, tall trees and everything. And just get it cleaned up,” she said
The trees are on Dunbar High School’s property on the other side of her fence. The City of Fort Myers hasn’t responded to Fox 4 regarding whether or not the school needs to cut the trees, but Williams said he wants them to stay for privacy reasons. Lee County Schools also told Fox 4 bobcats are not an issue that has been raised with the school.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said wild animals like bobcats are more afraid of humans than humans are of them. They said yelling and throwing rocks towards the bobcat should scare it away.
