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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend July 17, 2005 Chris Catania�s dog Reba survived a cougar attack last month on her Hosmer Lane property. But other pets in the Foots Creek drainage haven�t been so lucky. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven COUGAR KILL Rural residents say a Wildlife Services agent should be hired to hunt down an offending beast By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune GOLD HILL — Chris Catania’s five dogs had a confrontation last month in their rural backyard that has become all too familiar to residents in the Foots Creek drainage. About 5:30 p.m., a cougar apparently hopped a four-foot fence in hopes of turning one of Catania’s five dogs into an evening meal. Dexter, an 8-year-old mix, dashed to the porch and tore a nail trying to scratch his way inside. Reba, a Queensland heeler, stood and fought, suffering a side gash as clean as a surgeon’s scalpel. The other dogs eventually scared off the cougar, which Catania and her husband, Bruce, spotted again last week prowling outside their rural Hosmer Lane house. "Reba’s scared to death to go outside," says Chris Catania, who won’t let her dogs outside alone anymore. "I’m scared. We heard our neighbors’ kids playing outside and we shudder." Reba’s wounds have since healed, but the notion of a rogue cougar feasting on several dogs and livestock in the Foots Creek area has some Jackson County residents clamoring for a permanent solution for this and future wildlife confrontations. Advertisement Daylight attacks like this one, and several others on dogs and livestock in rural Gold Hill, have rejuvenated interest in rehiring a "government trapper" from the federal Wildlife Services program the county dropped 12 years ago amid budget cuts. Residents believe that a Wildlife Services agent could do what landowners and private houndsmen so far have been unable to do — track the offending cougar and kill it. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists don’t have the resources to remove pet-killing cougars, and state hunting laws ban sportsmen from using dogs to find, chase, tree and shoot cougars as part of the regular hunting season. Private houndsmen can chase damage-causing cougars only on the private lands where the damage occurs, and can cross into adjacent private lands only with written permission. Wildlife Services agents can earn authorization to chase offending cougars with dogs on public lands. Agents also can secure agreements with private landowners as well as rely on an arsenal of traps to target specific animals. Wildlife Services agents handle other wildlife complaints, everything from coyotes in henhouses to bear damage and attacks on livestock. A full-time agent would cost about $60,000 a year, a price that Wildlife Services bills as the best, most professional way for counties to address animal conflicts. "We are the agents of the state to deal with wildlife damage of all types," says Wildlife Services State Director Dave Williams, whose program is in 24 of 36 Oregon counties. "That’s the full-time job of our people. We’re on call, 24-7." That’s what is needed here, insists Shayne Maxwell, a Foots Creek resident who has chronicled a dozen dead pets and livestock in the surrounding area from one or more cougars in the past three months. Area landowners have tried to kill the cougar themselves, and at least two houndsmen have been hired to tree and kill the cougar, Maxwell says. One neighbor wears a side-arm just to mow his lawn, and others have stopped jogging until the offending cougar or cougars are found and killed. "Right now, I’m the one trying to figure out the patterns of this cat," Maxwell says. "It shouldn’t be me doing it. It should be a professional. "I have serious concerns about our health and safety," Maxwell says. "Does someone have to die before it gets the attention it needs?" But not everyone agrees. Brooks Fahy, from the group Predator Defense in Eugene, says the actions of the Foots Creek cougar are "no excuse" to contract with Wildlife Services and likens it to using "a nuclear bomb instead of a .22-caliber bullet." "It sounds like that animal needs to be taken out," Fahy says. "But that doesn’t mean you need a whole government-funded program." Williams says Wildlife Services agents in 2004 logged more than 500 confirmed cougar kills of livestock and pets, and agents killed 70 offending cougars last year. Though a high priority because of "health and human safety," cougar damage represents a minority of agents’ work, Williams says. Williams says about 70 percent of the damage cases worked by agents involve coyotes, which can be trapped or poisoned. Fahy, a longtime Wildlife Services critic, says other counties with Wildlife Services contracts end up with pets lost to coyote traps and poisons, he says. "Get ready, county, because you’re going to lose more dogs to Wildlife Services than to cougars, period," Fahy says. Other animal-rights activists question whether any cougar should be killed for eating domestic pets — especially those in forest-interface areas. Spencer Lennard from the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center says landowners should use "adverse conditioning" to frighten the cougar away, but not kill it. "I love dogs and cats," Lennard says. "But ecologically, they’re not worth anything compared to a mountain lion." Jackson County’s Natural Resources Advisory Committee is looking into whether a contract with Wildlife Services is worth-while, and members plan to offer their findings to county commissioners in September, committee member Lu Anthony says. "We’re always going to have some degree of a problem," says Jackson County Commissioner C.W. Smith. "To have someone trained and ready to go is a whole lot better solution than having all sorts of people trying their own thing. "The issues are funding," Smith says. "They want the county to pay for it." Maxwell believes the county should pay for Wildlife Services much like it funds sheriff’s deputies. "We’re talking about a threat to health and human safety," she says. Ed Kupillas, a rancher and member of the county’s advisory committee, believes the county should somehow partner with ranchers, farmers and others who would benefit from Wildlife Services. "That’s crucial," says Kupillas. "We could solve everything else and get agreement on what should be done, but if there’s no money available, the exercise is moot." For now, Catania and Reba will be exercising together until a houndsmen or one of her neighbors kills the Foots Creek cougar. "I sure hope they get him," Catania says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail COUGAR KILL ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers Southern Oregon Loans California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s