Cougar Hunting Coming Soon

[George Streepy]

With recent changes in our cougar hunting I am beginning to worry. No one knows what is going to happen next. We have been given an oppurtunity to prove the effectiveness of hounds and we continue to show that hound hunters have very little discipline. With the changes brought this year I believe we need to step up and show the powers that be how effective hounds can be as a management tool. We continue to close female quotas, leaving several males still on the list. Every hunter is afraid if they don't harvest a cat quickly, they won't get one. I challenge all hound hunters to not worry about harvesting and go after males. Do not fear the hunt is going to close and let the females go. What is the point in harvesting a 90 lbs female anyway? If drawn we can pursue untill March. Go catch some cats and enjoy hunting. My fear is if we continue on the path we are on there will be no hunting for anyone. Cougar hunting in Washington State has been a great oppurtunity for many of us. Since 2004 I have been able to hunt on these cougar permits every year but one. If we want to continue to hunt and have something for the next generation we need to let females go. We need to not kill collared cats and to not do unethical things on these hunts. I know alot of you will not agree with this and wonder who does this guy think he is. Hopefully I am wrong and our hunting stays no matter what we do, but I doubt it. Thanks for reading this, I appreciate your time.

[Machias]

This has been brought up every year for the past five. The ONLY way it works is if you can get all these guys in a room and explain the situation. I have harped on this every year and it hasn't happened yet and it probably won't ever happen now that mostly NON-houndsmen drew permits this year. I originally offered to take guys that drew, but they had to understand and agree that NO females, I don't care how big, and no young toms were going to be killed over my dogs. Since then I have decided to throw in the towel. I currently no longer have any dogs. The prospect of drawing every few years, IF that, has me waiting a couple of years until I move somewhere I can run my dogs prperly. I was lucky enough to draw a permit twice and treed nice females and let them walk so it can be done, but you will have enough guys who don't care about our sport, they just GOT to get THEIR cat, no matter what size or sex it is.

[hounddawger]

I agree. There are alot of non-houndsmen that are getting drawn and there are houndsmen that are taking these people hunting and getting paid to do it. Is it worth the small amout that your going to receive to maybe someday lose the sport we love? One of these days there will be no more cat hunting. The wolves are coming and their going to be competing with cats for deer, elk and every other thing they can catch and kill, and the numbers of cats are going to fall. I alse challenge these other houndsmen to be more disciplined in taking their cats. Goodluck guys and happy hunting.

[catdog360]

A lot of these hunters believe it is their right to hunt and kill what ever lion they can. But the fact is, it's their privilage to hunt these cats not their right. This hunt was designed to impliment a behavioural modification to the cats in these counties and to see if the use of hounds was needed and if it was a good resource to use. Guess what greed killed us again. We have a hell of a fight to keep this going. And if we can't prove anything this winter and convince the legislature that we are a valuable resource we will lose this forever. I'm afraid this winter the greedy guides or want to be guide are going to make us look even worse this winter.

[ropin&walkers777]

I drew a permit this year, There wont be any females taken under my dogs EVER.