Time to crack down on cougars

Published 9:38 am Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The recent reported sightings of cougars around the neighborhood of Silver Lake and the Seattle areas of Magnolia, Discovery Park, and Woodland Park — all dangerously close to human habitat — make me wonder why we don’t have a hunting season to reduce the “reported estimate of 2,000-2,500 cougars” in our state. (Wednesday article, “Cougar sighting in Everett prompts warning.”)

Idaho and Wyoming started their wolf hunting season recently to keep that population down to a safe, but sustainable number.

Are our hearts ruling our brains? Must we wait for attacks to happen as they did in the Leavenworth hills last month to three bicycle

riders? Isn’t it bad enough we have to be wary of human predators?

Now children or pets playing in their backyard abutting against a wooded area face the possibility of an attack by this large, fierce feline.

Would we have been so generous, so caring about the dinosaurs millions of years ago? Yes, I know the arguments for allowing them to co-exist with us, the most ecological of which is that they remove (kill) deer, elk, moose and other animals that overfeed on bushes and other plants needed for our forests to survive. However, if we reduce that population through hunting or other means such as sterilization, we protect our forests and make them much less dangerous for our use.

Fish and Wildlife officials won’t get involved unless a sighting is confirmed. How many sightings are necessary for a confirmation?

When a sighting is confirmed they want to relocate the animal. Why relocate? I say put it down as mercifully as they know how.

Right now the cougars have the upper hand.

Ange D’Andre

Mill Creek