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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 14, 2006 Dawna Vance coaxes her pigmy goats Sprite, left, and Dr. Pepper out of their pen on her Phoenix property Friday. She lost a 9-week-old pigmy goat to cougars, an incident that will be logged on the county�s new Web site designed to track cougar activities Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Cougars roam the Web County now posts sightings, cougar kills online; critic says it’s a first step toward hiring a trapper By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune When Dawna Vance surprised her 77-year-old father, Glenn Wilkins, with a 9-week-old pygmy goat on Christmas Eve, she thought she had the best gift $50 could buy. Family members named it Powerade — their other goats are Pepsi, Sprite and Dr. Pepper — and placed it in the pygmy pen outside their rural home on a knoll near Phoenix. Later that night, they heard a ruckus in the pen. Don Vance, Dawna’s husband, walked out with a flashlight to discover two young cougars inside the pen, devouring Powerade. "They weren’t afraid of the flashlight," Dawna Vance says. "It was so fast he didn’t have the time to get a shotgun or anything. "We’re all pretty sad about it," she says. Advertisement The Vances warned a few neighbors about their loss, and reported it to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Rosemary Stussy. In past years, Powerade’s story would stop there, recorded on a computer spreadsheet like the 261 other cougar sightings and damage complaints logged in Jackson and Josephine counties last year. But now, the Dec. 24 incident on the 4000 block of Coleman Creek Road soon will show up on a county-run Web page that has become the newest prop in public arguments over how best to manage cougar-human interactions in Southern Oregon. With Stussy’s assistance, Jackson County officials two weeks ago launched their "Cougar Incidents" Web page within its official site at www.jacksoncounty.org . The page includes a monthly list of cougar sightings and damage reports collected by Stussy, as well as a countywide map with incidents logged with small icons resembling a cougar’s face. The site also includes ODFW-supplied information about cougars, their habits and habitat, as well as tips for protecting pets, livestock and humans from injury or death should they cross paths with Oregon’s largest wild cat. So far, incidents reported to the ODFW in October and November appear on the site, which lists the date, location (by street block) and a short summation of the sighting or encounter. Stussy admits that the vast majority of the cougar sightings or damage reports are unverified; time restrictions allow Stussy to investigate personally only livestock kills with evidence left at the scene, she says. But Stussy says she believes it is the state and county’s responsibility to provide what information they have about cougar-human interactions to area residents — and not rely on people such as the Vances to keep their neighbors informed. "We need to let people know if there’s something in their neighborhood," Stussy says. "Not everybody can go out and pound on doors." Others, like animal-rights activist Sally Mackler, are less than impressed with the new site and question the motives for its existence. Mackler, who is wildlife chairwoman for the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, says she sees the site more as adding fuel to flaming hysteria over living among cougars than helping people co- exist with predators. The site does not reveal that the incidents are unconfirmed, nor does it discuss some scientists’ assertions that sightings are unreliable and a poor indicator of predicting cougar conflicts, Mackler says. There also is no mention that there has not been a verified human mauling or killing in Oregon in more than 100 years, Mackler says. "They’re doing more harm than good in helping the public deal with cougar conflicts and the risk of cougar conflict," Mackler says. Creation of the site came after Jackson County officials discussed the possibility of hiring Wildlife Services, a branch of the federal Department of Agriculture, to stalk and kill damage-causing cougars and other wildlife. Twenty-four of Oregon’s 36 counties have a so-called "government trapper," which Jackson County dropped 14 years ago amid budget concerns. To rehire a full-time Wildlife Services agent here was estimated to cost about $60,000. Mackler, who opposes re-aligning with Wildlife Services, believes the Web page creates a bias toward promoting the pro-Wildlife Services argument. "It serves to promote their political agenda to kill more cougars and to hire someone to do that," Mackler says. Gary Stevens, the county’s environmental health director who is overseeing the cougar page, says the county’s effort is not meant to boost any side in the Wildlife Services debate. "We tried to make it very basic," Stevens says. "The data is not our data. We are not the experts on cougars in any way, shape or form. "We just put together the information with a map so it’s accessible to the public," Stevens says. Jackson County Commissioner C.W. Smith says the county did not craft the site as a litmus test for whether there is support for a Wildlife Services agent in Jackson County. "But I think it could, if it’s presented in a balanced way," says Smith. "It’s not just cougars. It’s the whole Wildlife Services thing. "We want to get people away from the alarmist views," Smith says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Cougars roam the Web ">[email protected] . 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