Is It Time To Release The Hounds?

Is it time to find a way to restore hound hunting and bear baiting in Washington state to keep cougar and bear populations from getting much larger?

Confrontations between people and the carnivores have been increasing steadily since voters overwhelmingly passed Initiative 655 in 1996. The initiative ended hunting with hounds and bear baiting.

A young cougar recently attacked a 5-year-old girl in a campground in the Metaline area. She is recovering, but the incident has reminded outdoors enthusiasts that cougars, as well as bears, can be dangerous.

Some hunters believe the only way to keep the cougar and bear populations in check is to restore hound hunting and baiting. But they’re not sure that another initiative is the way to go.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials don’t want to make any recommendations, but some believe that an initiative that called for permitting hunters to use hounds and bait would fail. Opponents of such a measure, they believe, would be successful in clouding the issue with misinformation.

In 1994, Oregon voters passed a measure that banned hound hunting. When the cougar population started exploding, another proposal, Measure 34, which would have restored the use of hounds, was placed on the ballot. The anti-hunting crowd confused the voters, who rejected the measure.

The anti-hunters are so dedicated to their goals, some biologists believe, they’d oppose any effort to keep cougar populations in check, even if there were a cougar behind every tree.

So what else besides an initiative can be done to control cougar and bear populations? State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, has said she will urge the 1999 Legislature to restore hound hunting. But the state’s lawmakers rarely have done what’s best for fish and wildlife, and they’re not apt to improve their dismal record now.

Assessing carnivore populations is difficult, especially those of cougars, which are among the most secretive animals. And the DFW, strapped for money, is in the process of laying off personnel and cutting programs. It doesn’t have a lot of money to attempt population estimates.

However, biologists believe the cougar and bear populations have been increasing since the ban on hound hunting and bear baiting became effective in late 1996. Cougar sightings have increased dramatically, and bear problems have increased.

As cougar sightings have increased, hunter kills have dropped. Hunters killed 121 cougars in the Spokane region in 1995, the last full year when hounds could be used. The kill dropped to 86 in 1996, when hunters could use hounds for only eight days. Last year’s kill was only 55.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission opened the cougar and bear seasons on Aug. l last year and this year, and cut the price of a cougar tag to $5 and the bear tag to $15. But biologists say hunters will kill only a few cougars a year and the bear kill will be considerably lower than it was before baiting was banned.

The recent attack on the child was the first since 1996, when a man on a mountain bike was mauled by a cougar.

Attacks by black bears also have been rare. However, they can be troublesome. For example, a bear terrorized campers recently at the Spruce Tree campground on the Upper St. Joe. It tore up tents, broke car windows, ate all the food it could find and forced tent campers to sleep in their cars.

Steve Pozvanghera, biologist in charge of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s carnivore management program, said the state has records of only two unprovoked bear attacks in the last 24 years.

In 1974, a young girl was killed by a black bear in the Glenwood area. And in 1995, a young girl walking through a wooded lot in the Sultan area, was attacked and bitten by an elderly bear that apparently had poor vision.

The young cougar that attacked the girl last week at a campground near Metaline may not have had enough hunting experience to kill small animals, let alone deer, before its mother, ready for mating again, sent him packing.

“If the cougar was a youngster sent out on his own by his mother, he wasn’t efficient enough yet to kill deer,” commented wildlife biologist Steve Zender.

For now, outdoors lovers must assume that when they camp in the woods, pick huckleberries, hike the backcountry or hunt, there’s always a possibility they will have a confrontation with a cougar or a bear. And they must know what to do.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife can provide some help. It has a brochure that outlines ways people should behave if they suddenly meet a cougar or a bear. The brochure is available at regional DFW offices and some Forest Service offices.

You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.