I am the owner of Pacific Meadows Alpacas near Junction City. I am also a member of Oregon Outdoor Council
and writing in support of House Bills 2624 and 3395. I am not a hunter, I am an
Oregon farmer who has been completely destroyed by the overpopulation and poor
management of the cougars in Oregon.
In
May 2009 cougars started killing the alpacas, 19 total in the last four years.
Having the ability to use bait or dogs to hunt the predators that killed the
alpacas as well as other livestock and wildlife throughout Oregon is not a
guarantee, but it helps balance the odds. We have had dogs out within an hour
of spotting a cougar near a fresh kill, it was a day we lost three in one day.
It’s not always successful to eliminate the predator but it puts a fear in the
cougars and bears that they want to avoid the hunters and their dogs.
The
overpopulation of cougars in our area as well as the rest of the state is a
serious problem. I tried to get some attention to our problem after hikers
reported being stalked on Spencer’s Butte in Eugene. We only had seven alpacas
killed by this time but after calling all the news stations, we found out ODFW
was saying we were isolated and they wouldn’t cover it. We aren’t isolated.
Everywhere I go, I am always finding someone who has had a story about a cougar
sighting, kill, stalking, tracks, etc. I have heard of cougars thumping their
tail on the roof of a house in Eugene after the owner came back home from a dog
walk, I have heard of a cougar in the Amazon Creek near downtown Eugene,
multiple sightings above Churchill High School, a mile north of Eugene Costco,
in the parking lot of Oaklea School in Junction City, as well as one impaled on
a fence 1 mile west of my home in Eugene. I have even been told of a guy who
was at 26th and Chambers in Eugene being told by the police to be
careful, that a cougar was spotted in the area. The guy said “Oh yeah, I seen
it. He was following me for a while. They aren’t a problem, they have a right
to be here too.” I even have emails from LCC campus security warning of cougars
in the south parking lot.
I
have called the local officials. I even called Rob Handy, who was my county
commissioner at the time. I was trying to find support and find the funding
available to get the county trapper out to help us. He very specifically told
me I didn’t know what I was talking about, that there was no money available
for a trapper, even if I needed one, and that a cougar in no way could possibly
kill an alpaca, alpacas were too big. I told him I had reports of llamas being
killed, calves, a trained bird dog, horses attacked and I knew my predator was
cougars, that a professional trapper confirmed it. He still disagreed with me.
I then offered to bring down a carcass on a tarp and he could tell me what
killed it, since he didn’t think it was a cougar.
While
reporting one of my kills, I sarcastically asked our local wildlife biologist
when I was going to see the whites of a wolves eyes on the farm. He told me to
expect one within two years. That two years is this May and there are rumors of
wolves being sighted about 20 miles west of us. I have gone from being a person who was grossed out near a dead
animal to the local alpaca coroner. This whole experience changes you. It is
disturbing that we can come up to a dead alpaca or deer, evaluate it’s body,
pull up the animals head, turn it over looking for wounds, check for dislocated
vertebrae and evaluate the rectum for trauma to know if the death was by
cougars, other predators or of natural causes. To be so familiar with the smell
of blood and death, to be so experienced doing that is frankly disgusting when
I realized it was becoming so easy and routine. It shouldn’t be routine and
shouldn’t be normal. The loss of each of those animals haunts you, especially
when you realize you are waking up screaming or hitting the wall fighting off
the cougars in your nightmares.
One
of the things we enjoyed most out at the farm with the alpacas was the peace
and serenity. We marveled at the abundant wildlife, countless turkeys, plenty
of deer, raccoons, skunks, gray squirrels, ducks and more, all surrounding the
alpacas. When you have a predator at the top of the food chain, nothing is
preying on them but they will eat whatever is necessary to survive. If you have
too many of these top predators in a given area, they will eventually run out
of resources and look for other food, which in my opinion, is why we are
finding them in populated areas more often. We always enjoyed the deer munching
on the fallen apples across the road with the year’s new babies. Now the apples
lay on the ground untouched. Wildlife we recognized on site were disappearing
as well such as the young buck with a half rack and the floppy eared doe with
the fawns at her side. Now we have mostly just cougars and buzzards. We are
lucky to see an occasional deer or gray squirrel and we haven’t seen the elk
herd in years. The cougars are not afraid of people or houses and there are
more people being surprised by cougars close to home, in their own driveways or
on their decks. There needs to be balance in nature and that is just not the
case here.
The
predators in this state are getting a pass to roam freely without any reason to
fear for their safety. Before the law was passed in 1994 banning dog use,
cougars and bears had a healthy fear and respect of people and hunting dogs.
That’s not the case anymore. They are on our campuses, our playgrounds and in
our backyards. Today they have no fear of people. We have been stalked,
watched, followed, even snarled at. We were told that the snarling was a
warning to get out of it’s territory. Despite numerous attacks, we’ve only
managed to spot a cougar a handful of times, and never enough time to get a
clear shot. A couple weeks after being snarled at, we had our 19th
killed, once again, a cougar.
I
have lost several hundred thousand dollars in just the animals alone, not to
mention what they would produce for the years to come. I was an active breeding
ranch, these alpacas were production animals. I lost them as well as their
future production. No one is compensating me for this devastation. This has
completely destroyed my business. I didn’t ask for this, I loved raising my
alpacas. I am a known fiber artist and sell nationally. When my fleece is gone,
that too will be gone.
Thank
you for your time and your attention to this problem. Hopefully with the
passage of these bills, us farmers can feel we have the support again from the
state and an effective means of restoring balance.
