Cub May Keep Cougar Controversy Alive Valley Man Replaces Animal That Was Euthanized After Biting Child

A Spokane Valley man whose cougar was euthanized in April after biting a child replaced his controversial pet with a cougar cub.

By getting another cougar quickly, Randy McGlenn may avoid being legally blocked from keeping such an exotic pet.

Spokane County commissioners expect to vote soon on an ordinance that would limit such animals to rural areas. It would require owners to install double fences and meet other restrictions.

The ordinance being drafted by animal control officers would allow suburban residents to keep animals they already own. Told Monday about McGlenn’s new pet, Commissioner Steve Hasson said the county should reconsider that grandfather clause.

“It would be my personal goal not to grandfather somebody who clearly had notice that the county was going to restrict exotic animals,” said Hasson.

Buying another cougar “was clearly just a defiant act and an irresponsible act,” Hasson said.

McGlenn’s first cougar, Charlie, bit a boy who was petting the 150-pound animal through the chain-link kennel in McGlenn’s back yard. Doctors put four stitches in the palm of Kannon Langley’s right hand.

The 3-year-old cougar was put down four days later so health officials could test its brain for rabies. There is no proven vaccine to prevent wild animals from obtaining rabies, and no non-fatal way to test them for the disease.

The tests showed the cougar did not have rabies.

Charlie’s replacement is a 6-week-old cub, also named Charlie, that the McGlenn family feeds from a baby bottle.

Contacted Monday at his home at 415 N. Farr, McGlenn refused to talk to a reporter. He told a newspaper photographer that he plans to install a second fence to keep people away from the kennel, and will have the cougar neutered and declawed.

McGlenn said he bought the cougar from an out-of-state breeder because his family was so upset about the earlier cat’s death.

“I got him to fill the void from Charlie,” McGlenn said.

McGlenn first gained attention in 1992 when state wildlife agents told him to get rid of Charlie because McGlenn bought the cougar in Mead.

Although it is legal to own cougars in Washington, state law prohibits the sale of native wildlife as a way of discouraging the illegal capture of wild animals.

McGlenn skirted the law by selling Charlie to an animal rehabilitator in Idaho, then buying him back.

He made news again in November 1995, when Charlie escaped his kennel for a short time. Law officers held children in two nearby elementary schools until McGlenn’s wife caught the cougar.

Animal control officers estimate about 100 people own cougars, lions and other large cats in Spokane County. The proposed ordinance would restrict them, as well as wolves and wolf-crosses and other wild dogs, said Nancy Sattin, director of Spokane County Animal Control.

Bears and primates also would be regulated, as would any reptile that is venomous and some snakes that constrict, or squeeze their prey.

Sattin didn’t know when the ordinance would be ready for a public hearing.

, DataTimes