Mike Rizzo from Smithfield has been raising beagles and hunting rabbits with them for 15 years. He is also a Maine Guide and has guided numerous rabbit hunters over the years. In talking with him, a big man with an easy way, his love of the dogs and the hunt radiates like a morning sun on a frosty meadow.

A few years ago, while rabbit hunting near Crocket Ridge in Kingsbury Plantation, he knew something was wrong. The radio collar on his beagle, Annie, indicated that she no longer was moving. When he finally located his National Field Trial Champion, she was dead, buried under a trackless pile of snow.

A head, a radio collar and one foreleg was all that was left of Annie. Before Mike finally abandoned his favorite rabbit-hunting country in 2007, he was to lose seven other beagles the same way.

All of his beagles were killed, mostly eaten, and the remains had been buried, or carefully cached. Mike was able to recover the remains of his dogs via their radio tracking collars. Most astonishing to Mike is the fact that the animal, taking his dogs, is capable of carrying off a 30 lb dog, and then “ingesting half of it in less than three hours.” More astonishing is the fact that, on one hunt, Mike lost three dogs in one day!

What is going on here? What kind of an animal has learned that the sound of a baying beagle on a bunny trail is like a dinner bell?

Mike’s friend and fellow rabbit hunter, Levi Ladd from St.Albans, told me this in a recent e-mail:

An autopsy from Maine IF&W indicates this is likely the work of a bobcat or a coyote. As far as I know, coyote’s do not cache their food. IF&W’s autopsy also indicated heavy bruising on head and neck of the dog. From what I saw the only incisor marks appeared to be marks carrying the dead dog to a cache location. Large felines are known to take prey by ambushing and bludgeoning the head with their powerful forepaws, and then biting the neck for the kill. This behavior coincides pretty well with the autopsy findings. The incisor spacing indicate bobcat and being too small for cougar.

Mike was told by a state biologist that, typically, a lion’s incisor bite is longer than an inch, while a bobcat’s is less than a inch. The depth of the incisor bite on the autopsied beagle was an inch.

Of late, there have been some other beagles killed in the woods in other parts of the state. According to Washington County state wildlife biologist Tom Schaeffer, he knows of a couple of beagle losses Downeast that have been attributed to coyotes. A total of 20 hunting dogs have been killed while hunting rabbits in the same area where Mike used to hunt. Of the missing 20, 17 have been found with the help of the tracking collars.

What are Mike’s personal thoughts? Well, as you might expect, Mike and his family are deeply saddened by the loss of their lovable little dogs, not to mention the significant financial setback. ” It’s a real problem, this killing of domestic animals,” says Mike.” I myself think it’s a big cat of some kind, and I have not ruled out the possibility that it’s a lion.”

Levi makes these salient points in his e-mail:

Regardless of what type of feline it is or they are, the Kingsbury area is not safe for rabbit hounds currently. Whether it be one bobcat, several, or one cougar or several, Mike has lost up to 3 dogs in one day on one occasion and two dogs in a morning on another occasion. This situation is severe, and I feel an article in your publication would assist in: 1) preventing more rabbit hunters from having their dogs killed. 2) assist in identifying the predator taking the beagles. 3) increase awareness among rabbit hunters and cat hunters in the area. Rabbit hunters should avoid it. Cat hunters may want to check out Crockett Ridge or Palmer Pond.

Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted.