http://www.tombstonetumbleweed.com/This_Week/BadAssKillsCougar/badasskillscougar.HTM
That’s one big cat too.
Is it just me or does that look photoshopped?
I don’t know if it’s photoshopped or not, but the story is quite plausible. You do not want to mess around with a scared, pissed-off equine. Just a guess from the pictures, but I’d say that’s probably close to a 1,000-pound mule, and that cat’s not much over 100 pounds. I’ve been accidentally stepped on by horses, and I don’t even want to think about being stomped on purpose.
And mules, unlike horses, are noted for having minds of their own. Which is, simultaneously both one of their good and bad points. So, if it’s scared, it will do something about the problem.
I, too, find it completely plausible.
The dog audience looks a little sheepish to have a mule as their bodyguard.
Depends on the horse. If you don’t properly train the alpha animals in the herd (and sometimes even then) they have a very definite mind of their own.
Yeah, but not stupid enough to piss off a mule. 
I’d only meant to speak to generalities. My direct experience with equines of any type can be counted on my fingers and toes. I’ve got some, but most of my knowledge comes from reading I did during my ‘horse phase’ as a pre-teen, and some later.
It’s been widely dismissed by experienced lion hunters on Hunting forums. The dogs wouldn’t be spectators with a live lion.
I wouldn’t bet on that. The likely outcome of the dogs getting involved might be several dead dogs as well.
Also, IIRC, the only picture that showed dogs in the background was after the cougar was dead, dead, dead.
The dogs in the back are scent hounds. i love dogs, but scent hounds need, umm, dynamite, to move. Yeah, iy could happen.
The picture looks like crap to me. The images are too grainy to take accurate ratio measurements but the cat appears to be slightly different sizes in different pictures. Also the shadows don’t appear to match, but again, the poor quality of the images makes it difficult to tell for certain. At any rate, I doubt a cougar would hang around long enough to take on both a mule and the several dogs and at least one person; they are generally quite retiring, attacking people or dogs only in single numbers, and only in surprise.
That being said, mules and asses are both known to aggressively persecute coyotes and wild dogs, and are not a beast to trifle with. I’d expect it to attack by stomping first, rather than biting, but then, I doubt a cat would hang around to battle it out with a beast ten times its size, either.
Stranger
Snopes says undetermined.
Snopes is your friend.
I got the opinion from experienced lion hunters and trappers. I have to defer to them. I’d like to believe it. I like mules, but it just doesn’t seem to pass the smell test for me.