Rumors of a Lion on the Loose in Milwaukee Led to a Man Shooting a Dog

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On Monday, a woman claimed that she had video on her phone of a lion wandering around the north side of Milwaukee, which sounds crazy, right? But then, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn notified the public that officers were indeed on the look out for a "lion-ish creature" and everyone FREAKED OUT.

There were hashtags, there were (sigh) parody Twitter accounts, there was a comment from Flynn about how it was "theoretically possible" that a wild cat of some sort had wandered into the city from elsewhere in Wisconsin.

But while most people confined themselves to jokes on Twitter and/or quiet desperation, one man took matters into his own hands and fired a gun at what he thought was the notorious feline but was in fact only a pit bull. The Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission took in the injured dog, and told the local news it was recovering from a fractured leg.

An MADACC representative told Fox 6, "Obviously the person who shot this thought they shot a lion. People tend to be amped up or afraid."

Yesterday Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs reminded everyone that a lion—or even a "lion-ish creature"—is no laughing matter.

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