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Photo by Paul Fattig Ruch resident Amber Applegate says the deadly cougar attack on her champion llama Monday should be a warning to other rural residents. Llama death laid to cougar `People need to be scared,' its owner says By PAUL FATTIG RUCH -- Amber Applegate gently held the head of the champion llama in her hands as she spoke. "Shadow Fax was a two-time grand champion, shown all over the West Coast," she said. "I delivered him right here on the ranch three years ago. This is very emotional for me ... " Her voice trailed off as she looked down at the dead llama, disemboweled early Monday by what authorities believe was a cougar. "People need to be aware that cougars are coming down near homes," she concluded. "This happened only 300 feet behind our house." The 3-year-old llama, weighing about 350 pounds, was apparently killed around dawn. Its chest cavity was still warm when Oregon State Police game officer Pat McNeilly arrived midafternoon Monday. An adult cougar, roughly 7 feet long and weighing 140 pounds, was tracked down and shot within a quarter mile of the Applegate home around 4 p.m. Monday, McNeilly said. A local hunter with hounds under a contract with the state Fish and Wildlife Department treed the cougar in Spencer Gulch, he said. "The dogs struck his scent right behind the kill site," McNeilly said. "It was a suspected cougar kill and the trained hounds proved it." The fact the llama was disemboweled and its thigh bone crunched by strong jaws indicates it was a cougar kill, McNeilly observed. "They ambush their prey," he said. "We've been debating this one because it doesn't fit an exact mold. But a cougar likes to eat the heart and lungs and liver. The fact the pelvic bone was eaten eliminated coyotes." Although McNeilly was unable to find teeth marks, he said the neck may have been broken just below the skull. The attack was the latest reported in recent years in which livestock have been maimed or killed in the Rogue and Applegate valleys. "People in rural areas should be cougar-conscious," McNeilly said. "I don't want to scare anybody, but they need to be aware." "I think people need to be scared," Applegate interjected. The ranch -- Llaid Back Llamas -- with its 40 llamas is in a relatively heavily populated area along the Upper Applegate Road. Behind it is a ridge of brush and scrub oaks used as a corridor by wildlife. The attack has changed Applegate's attitude about hunting cougars with hounds, a method of hunting the big cats that was banned by Oregon voters. "I'm an animal lover -- I can't even stand to squish an ant," she said. "I practically slap people for killing spiders. I always take them out and release them." But she believes that cougars pose a very real threat to humans and their pets and livestock. She notes that the local deer population has thinned out in recent years. "As the cougar population grows and the wildlife population they feed on decreases, they are moving in closer to where humans live," she said. "They are taking people's pets and livestock. This new generation of cougar isn't afraid anymore." Applegate is afraid that if a human is attacked, then there will be extreme reaction. "People will be up in arms and the pendulum will be way out of balance," she said. "Everybody will go out and decimate them. We don't want that." What Applegate, who is not a hunter, wants is to allow cougar hunting with hounds again. While the experience has caused her to support changes in the hunting laws, she isn't ready to get a gun. "I don't even know how to shoot one," she said. "I don't like guns. I'd rather leave that to people who know what they are doing." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA