State's cougar program a fraud.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Jennifer Sachs For The Register-Guard

Ignoring the fact that voters have expressed their desire for greater protection of Oregon's cougars by twice rejecting hound hunting, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has unveiled a draft of its newly revised Cougar Management Plan, which calls for the slaughter of nearly half of the state's cougars. The department claims the slaughter is necessary because damage complaints and encounters between humans and cougars are on the rise.

Cougar control in the name of public safety is a ruse. ODFW's real motivation is to reduce cougars in an effort to inflate elk and deer numbers. Once again, ODFW is demonstrating that it has a greater commitment to hunting and outfitter interests than to good wildlife management.

The department began a campaign of fear in 1994 when Measure 18 prohibited bear-baiting and hound hunting of bears and cougars. Every year since, ODFW has not only solicited cougar incident reports but used them to fuel public hysteria with claims of dramatic increases in complaints and sightings. It has continued to assert that Oregon's cougar population is exploding - despite the dismay of cougar experts whose research suggests that is unlikely, and the fact that the vast majority of sightings are false.

Cougar expert Paul Beier repeatedly has questioned Oregon's use of unconfirmed sightings as evidence of an increasing population. `Reports of sightings are worthless (or worse) as an indicator of cougar presence,' Beier writes.

Regarding human safety concerns, Rick Hopkins, one of our country's leading cougar ecologists, has stated that there is simply no science to support the micromanaging of cougar populations to reduce the rare events of attacks on humans. He says, "The risk of an attack is probably in the order of 1 in 100 million or more."

ODFW would contract with the federal Wildlife Services agency (best known for the indiscriminate killing of predators, especially coyotes). Government agents will use traps, snares and hounds to kill cougars until up to 45 percent of the dead cats are female. Sidestepped is the fact that females usually leave their cubs behind when hunting, which, in effect, means certain slow starvation for juveniles that aren't old enough to survive on their own. It's an outrage!

Experts have stated repeatedly that hunting of cougars does not affect predation, cougar population or human safety. In California, where cougar hunting has been banned for more than 30 years, only about 120 cougars are killed each year for predation and rare encounters with humans. California's pragmatic approach, in strong contrast to the political extremism involved in ODFW's policy, serves as an excellent model.

Sadly, the ODFW's mismanagement of species is not unique to the cougar. This is the same agency that demanded the capture and return of the first wolf to enter the state in over 40 years.

Hunters say they pay for wildlife management. In actuality, what they pay for is the privilege to kill wildlife. Funding for the preservation of endangered species and biodiversity is almost nonexistent. Truth be told, if ODFW went out of business, many neglected species would flourish.

What Oregon needs is an agency that strongly enforces what minimum rules are in place to protect wildlife, a department that embraces the principles of science-based ecosystem management and conservation - not an out-of-control agency that micromanages species solely on behalf of hunters and ranchers.

More than 90 percent of the public does not hunt and respects wildlife for its intrinsic value. And yet they are ignored in wildlife decisions!

Oregonians deserve a wildlife agency that represents the views of all its citizens, and which requires peer review of all policies by independent scientists. Good wildlife management truly can protect all species.

Meanwhile, don't let the hysteria over bogus cougar numbers fool you. Predator populations are self-regulating, and safety concerns are absurdly exaggerated. Predators aren't the problem; ODFW's mismanagement of them is.

Jennifer Sachs of Eugene is a research associate with Predator Defense (www.predatordefense .org), a national wildlife advocacy organization founded in Eugene in 1990.