There’s probably no animal more beautiful and mysterious in our Oregon wilderness than the cougar. It’s also one of the most effective predators imaginable. But those predatory skills, honed by millennia of hunting fast prey like deer and elk, are way over matched for livestock like sheep and goats.
And as human and farm animals continue to encroach on the cougar’s historic range, trouble follows.
On this edition of the show you’ll hear about cougar attacks on livestock in our community, and you'll hear all sides of the debate including a livestock owner, Janelle McCoy, a cougar trapper, Eric Lee, and a representative of ODFW.
It’s a complicated issue, with true disagreements, but what’s clear is that in the equation of more people, plus more cougars plus more livestock, the sum is more attacks closer to us all.
