This is my Writing 123 Research Paper
I have pulled names of other people out so no one thinks I am slandering them...
Cougar Populations In
Oregon
May 17, 2009, began as a beautiful
spring day. The air was fresh with pleasant white, puffy clouds scattered
throughout a gentle blue sky. As I was moving alpacas to a greener pasture, I
crested the rise of a hill. I thought I seen a large animal slip through the
opening of the fence across the pond; thought it had a long tail, decided it
was probably just a deer and stayed focused on herding the alpacas. As I
approached the next pasture, I sensed an eerie feeling and realized the alpacas
were behaving peculiar, one even shaking so violently he had the appearance of
Parkinson-like tremors. I had already forgotten about what I had seen and
completed the task at hand. After a routine “head count,” I came to the
conclusion Maverick, a 2 1/2-year-old, 165-lb alpaca, was missing. In our search, also discovered was another alpaca
with seeping wounds on his flank and neck. He was clearly distressed as he
allowed us to catch him without much effort. Upon closer inspection, the
shocking reality of the morning’s events became clear. This was a cougar attack
and the fate of the missing alpaca, however hopeful, was grim at best.
A call to the county sheriff was
forwarded to the county wildlife biologist, Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife. This began my education and research of cougars
and cougar populations. I had heard of cougar sightings periodically throughout
the years but never heard of any livestock losses and never expected to
encounter them. Everyone I knew heard about Maverick and I started to realize
most everyone responded with a cougar accounting of their own, or they knew of
someone who had a story. More unnerving was several of the stories were located
near the farm.
The weeks following the attack
became more routine and though we hadn’t forgotten Maverick, we had another 41
alpacas that kept our attention elsewhere.
August 15th would be our
next experience with this apex predator. The farm’s landowner had his
grandchildren visiting. I watched as they went to the fence where Goose would
come to get his expected daily head rub. Goose had been orphaned almost three
years earlier when his mom died during his delivery. A very people-friendly
alpaca, Goose always paid more attention to people than his pasture-mates. The
grandchildren were there to play with Goose and he was nowhere to be found.
Could this be another cougar attack or was he stuck at a fence somewhere? We
had alpacas in the past with heads stuck in the fence or their fleece hooked up
in a berry patch. We quietly hoped we would find Goose in a silly predicament.
Goose was never found. The grandchildren lost out of playing with their buddy
and Goose’s fate was probably the same as Maverick’s.
Just how many cougars were we
dealing with? And how many times had we been seen ourselves? A second call to
the sheriff’s office was met with a stern lecture on not calling them for
livestock losses again. This raised our eyebrows. The dispatcher told me cougar
sightings and attacks on animals happen all the time and unless I had a report
about humans being attacked, I was only to report incidents to the county
wildlife biologist.
What did she mean saying reports
are called in all the time? How many are we talking about? How often? Were they
near us? Just how many cougars were there? Why us and why now? Why poor ol’
Goose? We needed answers.
We learned cougars were being seen
more and more often. A stray dog at our home introduced us to the county animal
control officer. In our discussion, we also talked about the cougars at the
farm. His advice? Arm yourselves! Stay vigilant and learn their behavior, it’s
your only defense against cougars. He said “they are everywhere.” He proceeded
to share accounts of cougars throughout Lane County, including several in
Eugene alone. A walker had one follow him on 26th and Chambers,
several sightings above Churchill High School and even a cougar thumping it’s
tail on the roof of a woman’s home in Southeast Eugene who had just returned
home from walking her dog. Why hadn’t I ever heard of this?
Three weeks later and our third
attack occurred. This time was an expensive female, Princessa! To make this
even worse, Princessa was nursing a three-week-old male who was now orphaned.
We were feeling the cougar population was quickly getting out of control and no
hope of controlling it was in sight. I had been given the number to the Federal
Wildlife Services Agent, after our first two attacks, but messages
to him went unanswered in the past. This was even more serious, in my opinion,
and I wanted him out there NOW. I called but just left a message. An hour
later, I called again, still no answer. I called again. The following morning
after reporting the attack to ODFW and complaining of the
extreme financial loss, he said to keep trying to contact the trapper, “there
are a lot of cougars out there and he’s probably busy.” 11:00 a.m. came and the
message I left him this time was more a threat. “If I don’t hear from you by
noon, I’m calling the media.” I got a call fifteen minutes later; he said he
would be out by 3:00. He said he gets five to fifteen calls a day on cougar
complaints and was the only federal trapper available, having a difficult time
keeping up with the demand. I apologized for the threat but explained I was at
the end of my rope.
The trapper arrived a little after 3:00.
I was just beginning to walk again after a severely shattered leg three months
before, so he had my fiancée show him around. I caught up with them just as
they were inspecting Princessa’s fatal wounds. He asked if she had been on
antibiotics since she had been killed but left behind. Of course, she had a
difficult birth and had been on a short course of antibiotics. He told us it
was probably why she wasn’t eaten and proceeded to tell us about various cougar
behavior. “They are an apex predator, they have no enemies.” Due to the 1994
passage of Measure 18 in Oregon, a ban was placed on using hound dogs to hunt
cougars and bears. He told us due to the ban, cougars and bears have been
free to multiply with better life expectancies than before. He also confirmed
we were dealing with cougars and not bears. He and my fiancée, left me
at the barn and went on a search for Maverick and Goose. He showed him how
to look for signs; “lion hair” left on fence tops, tracks and paths, to be
watching above in the trees, “they liked to lounge over their kill spot” and
how they can jump 20 feet from a stand-still. After an hour of searching and
identifying signs, both Goose and Maverick’s remains were located. Their
carcasses were across the creek and pond on the far side of the property.
The trapper also told us of a Pleasant
Hill woman who was reporting a raccoon nuisance but a cougar came along and
killed it. He also shared stories about children near Dexter watching a cougar
run across the road near the bus stop, a mountain near Cottage Grove with six
cougars residing on it and the stories kept going. He had one story after
another of cougar incidents. “How many cougars are there,” we asked. With a
concerned response, he said “way more than ODFW thinks.”
I sent emails to friends and family
warning them of the cougars seen and the losses we experienced. I joined
Facebook and warned even more. My soapbox was getting taller and I couldn’t
warn enough people. What was most disturbing was how many of those I warned had
a story of their own to share.
Sometime after our seventh attack,
the news stations were reporting about three cougars that stalked two female
hikers on Spencer’s Butte south of Eugene. I decided it was time to be heard
and called the news stations. The reporter at KVAL was only interested if a
human had been the target, KEZI was interested and scheduled time to come to
the farm but KMTR said they were interested but needed to confirm our claims.
Thirty minutes later, the reporter called back to cancel their interview,
stating ODFW biologist confirmed our attacks but said we were
isolated and not worth scaring the public.
We started tuning in to cougar
reports; at Albertson’s in Beaverton, one mile west of Eugene city limits which
had impaled itself on a wrought iron fence, a few blocks from the capital
building in Salem. We then started noticing missing person’s reports and
wondered if it was cougar incidents.
I reported our eleventh or twelfth
attack. While talking to ODFW, I asked him about a woman who was
missing near Dexter, but her body had just been found. I sarcastically asked if
cougar tracks were found in her area. He brushed my questions
off but said there are always cougars in that area.
I had really learned more than I
ever wanted to on cougar behavior, habits, habitat and expectations. Every time
I heard of another missing person, I instantly wondered if they were eaten by
cougars.
November 2010 was a final straw, in
a way, when our best female and her two-week-old baby was killed. This was
followed in early December when three alpacas were all killed on the same day.
I had been frantically searching
for a buyer for my final set of females. We had
purchased several as breeding stock and others were produced at the
farm. The value of the remaining alpacas was over $100,000 but the economy
wasn’t holding that price and I sold them for 6% their value. The day after the
buyer agreed to the price, our 18th alpaca was killed. Quick
arrangements were pulled together and the females left for their new home two
days later.
With time to think now, I began to
really wonder just how many cougars were in Oregon. I learned cougar
populations in Oregon have been a subject of controversy for many years. Also
known as mountain lions and pumas, this apex predator is a beautiful and
majestic animal but very dangerous with few natural predators. Early 1930’s
records indicate less than 200 total cougars throughout the state due to an
effort by migrating settlers to protect themselves. In the 1990’s, ODFW published
population estimates were around 2000. Now in 2013, the population estimates
are stated to be just over 6000.
I began to wonder if we were the
only ones experiencing this and the findings were frightening. I found a
rancher who had lost 26 horses to cougars, sheep ranchers with 60-100 losses, a
small hobby farm with the loss of six goats near Sweet Home who hired a
wildlife service agent and removed six cougars within two months. As I heard of
more losses and more incidents, I found many more questions were coming up. Why
were so many people having so many problems? Were sightings being reported but
no action being taken?
I began to wonder about the missing
person’s reports. They were missing with no trace of their whereabouts. After
our first attack, a fisherman went missing on the Sandy River. They found all
his equipment, said he was very well accomplished in the woods and just
vanished. Most drowning victims are found but they never found him. I contacted
the federal trapper up there because I just had to know. I asked if it was
possible that a cougar or bear was responsible for this fisherman. He told me
about how the ODFW used to trap and transplant cougars and bears in the
Clackamas forest area so they had a lot of predators up there and that anything
was possible.
There was the guy who vanished
helping the cycling race in Glide. He had a brain tumor so they were accounting
to that being the cause. Not me, of course. He vanished.
A University of Oregon professor
went up to Cougar Reservoir for a day hike and never returned home. His car was
found but no sign of him, and apparently he went up there for day-hikes a lot
so he knew what he was doing.
Then, last summer was a hiker with his friends on
the Santiam Pass; he stopped to take photos, they went to set up camp, and he
was never found. Another was a young guy from Eugene that they found his truck
in the French Pete Wilderness but never found him. Another was a story of a
young 17-year-old in Salem. He was jogging on a Salem area trail in a remote
part that cougars had been spotted before, but he was missing and never found.
After our tenth alpaca had been
killed, I was asked by a group, Oregonians for Responsible Cougar and Bear
Management, to testify in Salem in front of the legislature to share our
experience and ask for support in an effort to change the laws. If laws were
changed, it would allow more cougars and bears to be harvested with a better
success rate. I am a statistical minded person and wanted data to use before
tooting my horn, so to speak, but didn’t have the time to do the research.
Instead, I called a few representatives and ask what I could expect if I did
this. I found it to be a very heated topic and very politically motivated.
Representative Sal Esquivel was very supportive, eagerly wanted me to testify,
because he wanted less restrictions on hunting cougars. The same response came
from Larry George, Sherrie Sprenger and Vicki Walker. Though I had a concerned
ear when telling Nancy Nathanson, Ben Unger and Jeff Reardon, all Oregon
Representatives, they all told me the support would not be enough to get a bill
passed. After several condolence offerings, I discovered the only interest was
political without any regard to our experience and chose not to speak.
I had heard so many claims concerning cougar
populations, both in favor of and against cougars, I began to research what the
statistics proved. So, what did the statistics prove?
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife published a report, “2006 Oregon Cougar Management Plan.” (OCMP)
Within the 135-page report, details regarding growth, survival rates, attrition
rates and hunting harvest numbers were thoroughly offered, giving me what I
thought was perfect data to answer my questions.
In 1967, after a very concerted
effort to keep the cougars from extinction, a declaration that 200 cougars were
reported living within the state was celebrated. At that time, officials began
to allow hunting of cougars under very strict control in order to maintain
growth and allow hunters a chance to harvest them as well. The goal on ODFW’s
website states a healthy population of at least 3000 cougars in Oregon but not
to drop below 3000 and wrote the plan to define how that goal was going to be
achieved.
Maybe I am just too statistical,
but the ODFW website states “5700 cougars resides in Oregon” in 2006, but in
2006 Oregon Big Game Hunting Synopsis the population is stated at “over 6000.”
I ignored this data and began charting the statistics. I found the report
stated a female cougar in Oregon averages 2.8 cubs per litter and their litters
occur on average, every 17.4 months. This sounded reasonable and I decided to
keep the chart as simple as possible, therefore, rather than state my growth
rate yearly, I gave each row a month and year for the identifier that was 17.4
months apart beginning in 1967, when the report was 200 cougars in Oregon.
My next goal was to decide how many
of the 200 cougars in 1967 were male versus female. The OCMP stated to assume
the population was 50% male, 50% female, therefore I made a row to account for
the number of females, which was important to my calculations regarding the
growth rate. In a way, I believe male population numbers are equally important
regarding “Alpha Male” confrontations to assert dominance, but that will be a
research project for another day.
As a professional livestock
breeder, I know that not every female can reproduce, either due to age
(immature and senior) or that they are barren. I generalized a number, as I
couldn’t find a report regarding how many cougars were within this criteria and
assumed 20% were not reproducing. Laboratory analysis of the reproductive
tracts of numerous female cougars showed 2.8 cubs were born to each female at a
rate of approximately 17.4 month intervals. The survival rate was stated as “an
average of one” littermate survives to their first birthday. This was the only
data the report stated for survival rates for the litters and at 2.8 cubs per
litter, the number would account for 33% survival rate. Really? That didn’t
make sense to me but I didn’t have any reason to believe otherwise and thought
that was a pretty successful survival rate.
I then added the survival totals to
the beginning of the year totals. I subtracted the documented harvest rates
from these results and calculated an assumed attrition rate (death rate due to
age) of about 2%, as stated by the local wildlife biologist in
Springfield, Oregon.
I thought I was on my way to
finding out the population numbers. After the cougar problems I had for the
past four years, I figured this number was going to be much bigger than the
ODFW was claiming and looked forward to seeing the results. My calculations
exceeded that number so much, not to mention the paltry 6000 cougars ODFW seems
to think, even I thought I did something wrong. 1.44 million cougars in Oregon!
Really!? Had I missed some details or calculated incorrectly? The findings I
came to would put fourteen cougars in every one square mile of surface in
Oregon. I believe that to be my area but not all of Oregon, not based on what
we have always been told there to be.
So where did I go wrong? I read
through the report again, it’s the only statistical data I could find that had
information I needed to determine how many cougars resided in Oregon. I
couldn’t find anything I had missed. I began to research other data regarding
cougars. I found children’s books that stated the same basic numbers, websites
and more websites with the same data. I began to research encyclopedias as well
as call biologists at the Oregon Zoo and Wildlife Safari, asking them all to
help me determine what I was missing. Results of 1.44 million cougars didn’t
seem possible due to the fact ODFW has always said so few cougars were here.
When confronted with the questions I came to in the report, the Wildlife
Division at ODFW as well as other ODFW officials, agreed to and support the
data in the report to be accurate but the math shows 1.44 million cougars
within the state. So why do they claim less than 6500?
A representive at the Washington
Park Zoo in Portland, Oregon had me read my numbers to her as she couldn’t
quote average growth and survival rates off the top of her head. She felt that
my data was correct but that I had to have done something wrong “because it
just doesn’t seem possible to have that many cougars in Oregon.” Similar
opinions were found with officials at Wildlife Safari in Roseburg. I even
called College of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon
State University. They even confirmed the data of the report; growth, death,
survival rates, etc, was very close to accurate as well. He was surprised with
1.44 million but said they were very illusive and he wouldn’t be surprised if
it was a much larger number than officials state.
I still didn’t believe the numbers
and took a different approach. Go simple. In 1994, Oregonians voted to ban the
use of hunting bears and cougars with hound dogs. That year, the population
totals were stated to be 3000 cougars. The following year, the hunting synopsis
stated the ban was working and they rebounded in population with now 3500
cougars in 1995. That showed a growth rate of 16%. That sounded reasonable. My
data which was strictly from the Oregon Cougar Management Plan, was showing a
growth rate before this new idea at 26%, 16% sounded much better. Disregarding
any of my data regarding growth and attrition rates, I calculated the
population numbers from 1995 to 2012 with the new rate of 16%. The end numbers
at 16% growth rate since 1994 total 43,636 cougars. Sounds much better than
1.44 million, but I was still wondering if that was more logical.
I testified in Salem in March 2013,
sharing my alpaca losses with a committee investigating cougar populations and
the request to return hound use to select counties throughout Oregon. Jayne
Miller, founder of Oregon Cougar Action Team also testified but in support of
cougars. I sent her an email stating I was writing a report for my writing
class and asked what the survival rate of cougar cubs was in Oregon in her opinion.
She told me approximately only 10% cougar cubs survive per year and stated
“only 2000 cougars resided in Oregon, not the 6000 ODFW claims.” So I took her
numbers and did the calculations, but I included my death due to age rates as
well, since her comment was simply regarding the survival rates.
Imagine my surprise when I finished
those calculations! 16,035 cougars based on activist Jayne Miller’s growth rate
opinion. Even at Miller’s growth rate,
the cougar population in Oregon in 1994, when her organization was supporting
Measure 18, even those numbers weren’t adding up. With the success of the vote
to ban the use of hound dogs to hunt the cougars, her organization stated how
exciting it was to find cougars rebounding finally and that the growth was over
3000.
I took Miller’s growth of 10%,
reduced it by 2% for death rates for age, and starting at 200 cougars in 1967,
my calculations came to only 2600 cougars in Oregon in 1994, the year they
claimed how it was appalling that only 3000 cougars resided in Oregon.
After all this research I conducted
trying to find what the population of cougars were within the state of Oregon,
I found everyone pulls numbers out of their hats to suit their agenda, no
matter how they came to those findings, and begin to shout it from their
rooftops so supporters will hear and those that can be swayed to believe them
will listen. This is not just Miller. This includes hunter groups as well as
ODFW. Miller still claims only 2000 cougars, hunting groups state between 13,000
and 14,000. When confronted with my statistics and results, ODFW officials
still stand behind their data of 6000 cougars in Oregon for 2012.
What bothers me is that laws are
based on the 2006 Oregon Cougar Management Plan. If lawmakers did the numbers
like I did, I think they would lift all hunting regulations on cougars and
offer an open season, a sort of “kill them all down to no less than 3000
cougars” attitude, if there were really 1.44 million.
When asked about the accuracy of the 2006 Oregon
Cougar Management Plan, ODFW's Salem office adamantly defended all the data in it
and told me nothing was missing. When I told him 6000 cougars was a huge
difference from 1.44 million and needed help reconciling this, he told me he
didn’t have time to deal with a writing paper and to email the office with my
questions so he could have someone else answer them, then he promptly hung up
the phone on me. Why the attitude? In a legislative committee to consider
reinstating some counties the use of hound dogs for cougar management, Anglin,
at ODFW also testified. When Representative Brad Witt asked how population
numbers were calculated, Anglin stated they created the 2006 Oregon Cougar
Management Plan, which was reliable and thorough data to determine population
estimates. He stated the data is used as a model to continue determining
population totals.
Okay, so the plan is accurate. Do the math. Anyone
can do the research and the math but never find the population numbers to total
as few cougars as ODFW is still claiming. I had math professors also verify my
findings. If they are going to stand behind the plan and still stand behind
their current population numbers of 5948, as stated in the news release
determining big game regulations for 2014, dated 7 June 2013, they are
discrediting themselves.
How many other wildlife, livestock, family pets and
even humans are dying to support the dietary needs of a cougar? A cougar needs
approximately 20 pounds of meat each day to sustain itself. Of course it does,
it’s a carnivore. When cougars are spotted in city neighborhoods; spotted by
visitors at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, near Willamette High
School and in the parking lot of Oaklea Middle School in Junction City, you can
naturally assume they are looking for their next meal and not just on a
wandering stroll. How many people who see them in these areas believe they are
there to look for a friend to play with, like a child? A rancher near Eugene did. She
is the bison rancher west of Eugene who had a cougar impaled on her wrought
iron fence. It was stated in the Register Guard that she didn’t feel the cougar
was there to cause harm, that it was just there to play with the bison. I would
disagree. A cougar is a wild animal looking for a food source. Wild cougars
have no zookeeper tossing food to them, they have to wander their domain
looking for the next meal. When they are hungry, they will make their move, no
matter what the option is, be it wildlife, livestock, family pet or human.
In my opinion, evidence would suggest cougars are
not at all rare. It would seem logical that if Oregon cougars were as
endangered as some groups would have you believe, there would be far fewer
livestock/human/cougar conflicts and a lot less people would report their
beloved house pets killed by a cougar. A report of a cougar chasing a dog in
through the “doggie-door” in Dexter could help convince anyone. The facts and
reports suggest that there is a larger population. Cougar sightings are
increasing, as are the “Cougar Sighted” signs. I traveled to Astoria, made a
crack that the park looked like cougar territory, and 15 minutes later we seen
a small, yellow sign. Wondering what it was; figuring it was saying something
about herbicide sprays, I went to read it. A cougar had been seen 4 days before
and it was a warning to visitors to be vigilant. A drive down the coast and
stop at Nehalem Bay Airport found another sign. That cougar was spotted just
three weeks prior. Now that I knew what the signs were, I started spotting them
all over, including Lane Community College’s south parking area. I have lived
in Oregon my entire life and traveled throughout this beautiful state.
What now? Will anyone care? Will
anyone listen? I spoke with many people with differing agenda’s and informed
them of my findings. Most told me that the report was just written to give some
statistics but weren’t intended to be all that reliable. No matter what the
numbers stated, they were more concerned about their agenda’s and would
continue their fight based on what numbers they felt were correct.
Why was this such an important
topic for me to determine? What was my agenda? The safety of my friends and
family as well as all Oregonians was first and foremost. I have been stalked,
snarled at, watched and dealt with the loss of numerous alpacas I loved and
cared for. That was my agenda. I have been at constant risk of becoming a part
of the food chain myself. Every time I hear of another missing person on the
news, my heart sinks with the thought of what that person experienced and if it
was due to a cougar. Another agenda is to know the truth and to make sure the
wildlife is managed properly, because a healthy balance is critical for a
healthy ecosystem. The pro-hunting groups state in their argument that a cougar
needs the equivalent of one deer a week to survive. ODFW admits this and the
population of elk, deer and other small wildlife have reduced almost in half in
many areas.
No matter what the population is,
no matter who supports what numbers, one thing is certain. Oregon has a very
controversial topic regarding the population numbers of cougars in Oregon and
the damage done by those numbers is equally as controversial. Due to this, I
may never know what the actual cougar population is. My loss of over $200,000
in business and livestock damage, that’s not controversial. How many cougars,
how many bears, how many elk and deer, and now how many wolves? Those numbers
will always be in question and based on the agenda of the person stating the
data in the future, will dictate how the numbers will play out. Who loses? We
all do. If the numbers are as large as I am finding, the number of missing
persons will increase, the population numbers of other wildlife cougars prey on
will fall and the number of cougars dealing with an overpopulation will
explode. If the numbers are less than my findings, who will lose? We all will
again. Cougars are important to our ecosystem.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
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.