Attacks Spur Call for Cougar Hunts

They are small. They move quickly. They tend to make loud, high-pitched noises.

And young children may simply look like prey to the cougars roaming forests, brushlands and, increasingly, backyards of the West.

“The reason you’re seeing children involved is that the cats are treating people as prey species,” said Steve Pozzanghera of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Oftentimes what you’ll see is young, inexperienced cats, and when they encounter a human, particularly a small human, it would appear to be a good prey.”

One immature cougar apparently had that thought when it mauled a 4-year-old boy outside his grandparents’ northeast Washington home in August. The boy needed 200 stitches. The cougar was killed.

The attack, similar to one on a 5-year-old girl at a Washington campsite last year, has prompted renewed calls from lawmakers and now wildlife officials to allow some hunting of cougars with hounds.

But supporters of a hound-hunting ban enacted by citizen initiative in 1996 say the real problem remains human behavior, not cougar misbehavior.

“There’s no doubt cougar have increased, but it’s not cougar spreading into suburban areas, it’s suburban areas spreading into cougar habitat. They want to ignore the fact that they’re letting their kids and their cats and their dogs go into cougar area,” said Will Anderson of the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, based in the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood.

The last time anyone was killed by a cougar in Washington was 1924. But cougar populations have increased from about 1,500 in the 1980s to at least 2,500 today, Pozzanghera said. With that rise has come a rise in the number of reported cougar sightings and encounters:

* In 1996 there were 495 reported cougar sightings.

* In 1997 there were 563.

* In 1998 there were 927.

Only nine attacks on humans have been recorded in state history. But seven of those occurred in this decade--five on young children, Pozzanghera said.

Part of the reason for the increase may be larger cat populations and the cougar’s natural territoriality, he said.

“Young cats . . . are having to leave to try to establish their own territories and minimize their contact with adult males,” pushing them increasingly into populated areas, he said.

He acknowledged, however, that the number of sightings reported may be affected by media attention to the issue, and “there probably is an increased reporting phenomenon coming on.”

Brook Fahy, executive director of the Predator Defense League in Eugene, Ore., said that by his group’s analysis of cougar-sighting records, Oregon sightings may be dramatically over-reported.

Oregon has banned hound hunting for cougars since 1993, and an attempt to reopen five northeastern counties to such hunting was rejected by the Oregon Legislature in May.

California has banned cougar hunting of all types for more than 20 years.

Fish and Wildlife believes the increase in sightings is genuine in Washington, and that proactive rather than defensive measures are needed to control cougar populations, said Bruce Bjork, chief of the agency’s enforcement program.

“One way we would help is to issue permits to hound hunters in a very focused, selective geographic area to reduce the number of cats,” he said.

“We see that as a very surgical approach. We’re not looking for hound hunting to reverse the initiative.”

For state Sen. Pam Roach (R-Auburn), overturning the initiative has become something of a personal crusade.

“These cougar have overpopulated, and in looking for food are coming into populated areas. We’re going to lose human life,” she warned. “I don’t want that to be what causes the Legislature to act.”

Roach is a sponsor of one of the cougar bills that will be taken up in the next Legislative session, beginning in January.

Sandy Walsh, the mother of 4-year-old attack victim Jacob, said that as a child she played without fear outside the same house near Barstow where her son was mauled.

“I walked all over that place, and my dad did too,” she said. “It was never a concern. We never even thought about it, actually.”

Jacob now fears the outdoors.

“He wants to be held when he goes outside,” Walsh said.

She said she and her husband, Pat, favor well-managed hound hunting for cougars.

“We’re not anti-cougar or anti-wildlife . . . but wise decisions need to be made. To let the cougars get out of hand is not a wise choice.”

Bjork said hunters without hounds have not been able to take enough cougars to manage population growth.

But hound hunting affects more than cougar, said Mitch Friedman of the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance.

“What we’re opposed to are hunting methods that are barbaric in nature and affect other wildlife,” he said, adding that hounds “take off after everything.”

Even if the hound-hunting ban is not overturned, the citizens’ initiative has been hobbled by a lack of funds from the Legislature for cougar management, Anderson of PAWS said. It may be outright crippled following passage this month of Initiative 695, which effectively removed hundreds of millions of dollars from government budgets in Washington.

“It was difficult as it was, but we were nearing agreement. Now, with this initiative, it’s thrown cold water on it, and everybody will be scrambling for essential services,” Anderson said.