Bills make 'end run' on cougars.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Catherine Koehn For The Register-Guard

Two bills in the Oregon Legislature are widening the ever-growing gulf between urban and rural voters. House Resolution 2759 and House Bill 2781 are designed to undermine the will of Oregon's voters, who in 1994 and 1996 passed initiatives banning hound-hunting of cougars and the use of bait to hunt bears.

These new bills would, in effect, institutionalize the very practices that we twice banned by establishing an initial one-year pilot program under which houndmen could chase cougars with packs of radio-collared dogs. This practice is unfair, unethical and inhumane, and the pilot program would open the door to full-blown legalization. A return to bear-baiting would be the next step.

Predators are an essential part of any ecosystem. Mountain lions are called a `keystone species," because they reflect the health of their habitat. For instance, biologists in Arizona documented that cats are necessary for vigorous, healthy deer herds.

Some blame cougars for the decline of elk in Northeastern Oregon, but biologists know that an area's ability to support herds of elk and other ungulates is directly related to the quality and availability of forage, as well as the viability of habitat. The region's long-term drought has created forage conditions that may not meet elk herds' reproductive needs.

Wallowa County has historically been experiencing a steady decline in elk herds for the last 40 years. According to biologists, the most significant factors in elk declines are not cougars but weather, climate, forage and nutritional conditions.

Another biological fact: There can't be `too many' cougars. Big cats' unique territorial nature acts as a self-limiting population mechanism. The fact is, people are seeing cougars more because they are returning to the habitat niches they occupied before the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife allowed the near extinction of mountain lions through mismanagement and over-hunting. Even with this increase, a cougar has never attacked anybody in Oregon.

Dr. Paul Beier, the author of several peer-reviewed studies on cougar-human encounters, wrote in a 1995 letter to the Oregon Legislature that "Proponents of hunting should not claim that hunting cougars is necessary to maintain public safety. ... Quite simply, sport hunting does not reduce the risk of cougar attacks on humans."

Beier further states, `hound-hunting will not reduce the risks of human-cougar interactions or potential attacks." In fact, he claims that such trophy hunting `may well cause an increase in the number of yearlings - the class most prone to human attacks.'

So, if the Legislature makes this `end run' around Oregon voters and releases the hounds again, it will actually be creating an increased threat to public safety.

In addition, the state should not encourage poaching, which these proposals undoubtedly would. Houndmen are notorious poachers. There is a thriving black market in bear and cougar gall bladders. Asian demand has made these organs, pound per pound, as valuable as gold. Worldwide, bears are so threatened that they are protected by the CITES agreement, an international treaty banning trade in endangered animal parts.

In the past decade, the Oregon State Police have caught several large groups of houndmen poaching cougars and bears, and brought them to justice. Any attempt to unleash hounds would be perceived by the public as encouraging poaching - because there are not enough troopers to watch the whole state.

A recent legislative hearing on these proposals (convened in Baker City, no less) shed light on the true motives behind these shenanigans. Houndmen brazenly testified that their goal was to open up the whole state to year-round trophy-hunting. They further admitted they also wanted bears added to the bills. It is very apparent that these unnecessary pilot program `study' bills are merely thinly veiled excuses for an all-out cougar slaughter.

Besides, ODFW `studied' cougars from 1987-94, and then started another still ongoing, five-year study in 2001. We do not need any more cougar studies.

The Humane Society urges voters to contact your legislators to stop these bills. I would add: Tell them we want them to stop pandering to a few dozen trophy hunters and out-of-state interests like the Safari Club.

Catherine Koehn of Eugene is the past director of the Northwest Cougar Action Trust, a nonprofit group that worked to end baiting of bears and hound-hunting of cougars in Oregon.