No option seen in cougar killing

The official execution last week of a cougar that was killing livestock out in McKenzie Canyon has stirred intense feeling in The Sisters community.

Some believe the cat should have somehow been rehabilitated, or released in a location where it could not attack livestock.

Almost as many believe the cougar received its just desserts.

State law dictates that any wildlife or domestic animals found guilty of killing or molesting livestock must pay with their lives. That in itself is enough to seal the fate of a cougar -- or any other animal -- that kills goats, sheep, llamas, horses, chickens, or any animals with a market value.

There have been exceptions made as happened in Bend a few years back when two dogs chased a neighbor's livestock yet were given a reprieve due to public outcry.

Some people in our community adamantly believe the McKenzie Canyon cougar should have received the same break.

Wildlife experts point out that a cougar's choice of prey is not a moral decision. Wild predators do not suffer from a guilt complex when they kill another animal for food, no matter who it belongs to.

A cougar may find goats easier to kill than a deer, expending less energy for more energy assimilated.

It is possible that the goat-killing cougar could survive if it had been taken far away and released, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Steven George.

"But the worst thing is, we might have released that cougar in a territory already occupied by at least one other cougar, and that would have stirred up a lot of trouble for both cougars and deer," George said.

"The cougar who was depending on a small part of the deer herd to get through the winter would have had to defend its territory," George said. "If it didn't chase the new cat out, then the stress on the deer herd would have doubled."

Then too, other cougar experts claim, once a cougar, especially a young one, starts killing livestock it may become habituated, and it becomes almost impossible to stop it from taking that easy prey in the future.

According to these arguments, even if the cougar had been released in a remote area such as the Hell's Canyon wilderness, it wouldn't have been long before it bumped into another cougar or found a ranch or farm and the trouble would have begun all over again.

Sue and Sherode Powers, the ranchers who lost expensive goats to the cougar, attempted to locate a zoo or museum to take the cougar and save its life.