An 11-year-old girl from Twisp, Washington took down a cougar that was stalking her older brother.

Shelby White's father, Tom, spotted the big cat tracking his 14-year-old son as he returned from feeding the dogs. He quickly turned to his young daughter and told her to kill the animal.

Shelby didn't hesitate. She grabbed her rifle, took aim at the cougar and shot it dead from a 10-foot range.

If it seems unusual that a father would task his daughter with killing a fierce predator, it isn't... at least not for this family. Most of the members of the White family are skilled hunters, and little Shelby happens to be the only one with a legal permit to kill a cougar.

According to Daily Mail Online, this isn't the first time the White family has taken down one of the big cats. Earlier this month, 13-year-old Tanner killed a cougar circling the farm, and nine-year-old Cody managed to kill one as well.

The animals have posed a problem to the Twisp community in recent years. Analysts theorize that the predators are not able to sustain themselves on the diminishing population of deer in the wilderness, causing them to seek prey in residential areas. The cougar that Shelby killed was likely after the cattle on the White's ranch.

The cat was particularly small for its species. The four-year old female weighed only 50 pounds, about half the size of your average cougar.

"This cougar was very, very skinny," said Cal Treser, an enforcement officer for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Given the increasing number of cougars moving into residential areas, the Department is now issuing special permits for hunters to kill cougars.

Related