conservation group education program

[Emily]

this seems relatively neutral as "scientific" hunting group advice goes
http://easterncougar.org/CougarNews/?p=215

WHAT TO DO WITH A COUGAR IN AN INAPPROPRIATE PLACE
Written by admin on December 15, 2008 – 1:54 pm -

Advice from California’s State Mountain Lion Coordinator

An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 cougars (mountain lions) share California with almost 38,000,000 human beings. The human population continues to grow and expand into cougar habitat. California’s climate is conducive to outdoor recreation, and Californians spend millions of days outdoors in cougar habitat. But in the last ten years, there have been only two fatal and two nonfatal attacks on humans (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/attacks.html ). Almost any other risk of death is greater, including being hit by lightning or being killed by dogs.

The deaths of a young male cougar from the Black Hills of South Dakota, shot by law enforcement officers in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on October 7, 2008 while it was lounging in a back yard, and another young male that was shot after an abbreviated tranquilizing attempt in Bossier City, Louisiana, on November 30, 2008, led us to ask Doug Updike of the California Department of Fish and Game what their personnel do when a cougar shows up in a residential area. The following is derived from a telephone conversation on December 4, 2008:

Updike said that generally the DFG will tranquilize an out-of-place bear or cougar and take it back into wild habitat, if the animal has no history of causing a public safety threat or a being a depredation animal. These animals are generally no threat to public safety.

Responding public officers–”First Responders” as he called them–have the authority to act as they see fit to protect public safety, even if a wildlife officer might not agree with that action. He had viewed the video recording the death of the cougar in Bossier City and said that a similar situation had occurred in Palo Alto, CA in recent years. Peace officers reached a treed cougar first. Because an elementary school was about to be letting students out nearby, they decided it should be killed to protect the public. (Police officers must err on the side of public safety.) If a wildlife officer had been there, s/he might have recommended a different course of action. They could have pulled people back and given the cougar an avenue of escape. But the decision of peace officers has precedent over other decisions.

I asked what he would have done if he’d been in Bossier City and had been in charge of the situation. He said he would have pulled everybody back a few blocks, giving the cougar space to come out of the tree and run back into the woods. This approach would be especially important in Louisiana, where cougars are listed as endangered and protected by both state and federal law.

I asked him for his recommendations for the Eastern Cougar Foundation. He said:

(1) Wildlife agencies respond to the public. The public is their biggest challenge. In California public attitudes toward mountain lions have changed dramatically from the 1950s, when they were still being killed for bounties. The DFG now puts out a consistent message, emphasizing that the risk of being attacked is exceedingly small and that mountain lions are an incredible resource. Police officers and the public need to better understand the behaviors of cougars. In general, cougars tree because they are afraid. They will wait for the opportunity to come down from the tree and run away.

Legislators reflect public opinion. Generally they will provide what the base of the public wants.

The ECF needs to tell the public again and again and again that the risk of attack by cougars is exceedingly small, emphasizing what incredible animals they are. He didn’t see why we couldn’t get cougars reintroduced to the East..

(2) Educate police officers. The DGF is working on a training DVD for law enforcement officers and first responders on how to handle cougar situations, consistent with the Department’s policy. It will be completed within the next 6 months. They plan to issue thousands of them to law enforcement officers through California.

Earlier this year Updike went to Florida and spoke with panther groups because some goats have been killed by panthers. He was surprised that owners of little hobby livestock farms tucked into remote places have lower property taxes, promoting many alternative food sources for panthers. The main concern of the groups was the possibility that a panther might attack a human. Updike told them that the likelihood of that happening was extremely small.