FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some near the Labadie, Missouri, area who got to see a mountain lion up close.
From bobcats to raccoons and deer, there’s always some wildlife walking around Franklin County, but a mountain lion is a rare sighting. Glenn Straatmann, 48, who owns Straatmann Feed in Labadie, has lived in the area his whole life and has never seen a mountain lion.
“It’s very surprising,” Straatmann said.
One of his truck drivers hit the mountain lion Monday night near the intersection of Highway T and Old Highway 100.
“The cat ran out in front of him, and he missed it with the truck, but the empty trailer had hit it,” Straatmann said.
Agents from the Missouri Department of Conservation tried to find the animal on Tuesday morning, but they were unable to locate it. The Missouri Department of Conservation said this is only the third time a mountain lion has been seen in the St. Louis area since 1994. The last sighting was in 2017 in Warren County. The first was in 2011, in Chesterfield.
“It was just sitting there staring off into space,” Tiffany Door said.
Door had gone to see the cat when her son called her to tell her what had happened.
“You know it’s the Show-Me State, so you want to see things in person,” Door said.