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Mark Freeman Commentary Training planned to deal with coug attack ROSEBURG � In dry grass outside this rural Southern Oregon town lies the disemboweled body of a man, the victim of a brutal attack the likes of which Oregonians haven�t seen since settlement times. Nearby also lies the body of an adult cougar, whose bloody mouth and paws suggest its role as offender. And those who first see the scene quickly realize they are viewing the remnants of a struggle in which the woods� two apex predators crossed paths in the deadliest of ways. This ordeal never happened in Oregon during the 20th century. But that doesn�t mean it can�t or won�t in the 21st. So police and wildlife biologists Friday are training themselves and each other on how to handle a case in which a cougar or a bear kills a person in Southwest Oregon. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Friday will host a daylong workshop here using the mock fatal cougar attack to test-drive the agency�s new contingency plan for such attacks and prepare biologists and police for the unique issues that would arise. "The sense here is that this is no different than any other disaster training � you hope you never use it," says Steve Denney, the ODFW�s Umpqua Watershed District manager here. "But if we do, there will be a great amount of media and public scrutiny. "It probably makes good sense to try all this out." The training will help answer critical questions, like what to do with the human body? How should the dead cougar be handled? Is this a cougar kill or a staged attack to hide a murder? How will police deal with the ensuing public outcry about predators? Who�s actually in charge? "It�s not ODFW," says Capt. Lindsay Ball, who heads the Oregon State Police�s Fish and Wildlife Division. "It could be a chief of police, it could be a county sheriff. It could be us. "It�s very prudent that public-service agencies understand that this can happen, has happened (elsewhere) and be prepared for what to do if it happens here." While no cougar has killed a human in Oregon in more than 100 years, attacks on humans have occurred in Washington and California. California has conducted regular training workshops for dealing with such attacks. Friday�s training will be a first for Oregon, and it will test the protocols outlined in the ODFW�s cougar and bear attack contingency plan written in July for Southwest Oregon. There�s a lot to learn, with biologists and police having knowledge to share. For biologists, they will learn how to treat the scene like a homicide instead of the damage-complaint scene with a dead sheep or other livestock they normally associate with cougar attacks. They will practice how to ensure preservation of blood, hair and saliva off a wounded person, and how to ensure evidence is not ruined on a dead one. They will learn how to use the items of the agency�s new Cougar/Bear Attack Kit. They will discuss how to find a live cougar suspected of killing a person, and how to kill it without contaminating the potential evidence in and on the carcass. And they will learn how to bag the offending cougar�s paws and head, and how to pack and transport the animal to the National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland for tests. "In essence, it should be treated like a homicide," Ball says. For police, they need to learn a similar laundry-list of skills from biologists. For instance, police will learn how to look for signs of a cougar kill and how best to locate the attacking cougar depending upon where the incident took place. Police, like biologists, also need practice in dealing with the immense public scrutiny and media spotlight that will descend upon a fatal cougar attack. "If there is a cougar kill of a human," Ball says, "the first outcry from the public will be, �Where�s the cat? It�s gonna kill again.� "And trust me, having no response is not going to be adequate." Police, Ball says, are used to investigating a murder or other form of homicide without a lot of human interference. But that likely won�t happen in the event of a cougar kill, as the general public is likely to weigh in with advice and offers of assistance the likes of which normally don�t occur when people kill people, he says. If a cougar kills a human and escapes, wildlife managers can expect some mass fear and hysteria and the consequent media swarm. "I hope it never happens," Ball says. "But if it does, the agencies are going to be better prepared from this training to deal with it." "This is not normal," Ball says. "If someone was killed today in Portland by a cougar, that would be sensational." And it is all something that biologists and police believe they should first practice with a frozen cougar and a mannequin instead of getting baptized in real blood. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA