Close Calls Show Law Needs Work

It’s just a matter of time before something happens.

That prediction was made by Marshal Rick Reiber after something did happen Aug. 4 in his neck of the woods, Metaline Falls. A cougar attacked a 5-year-old Oregon girl in the middle of the afternoon at a campground on Sullivan Lake. Her screams and the young cougar’s inexperience prevented the “something” Reiber was talking about: a fatality.

Some animal rights extremists may place a higher value on critters but no one with common sense would consider a beast more valuable than a human. Since 1996, when cougar hunting effectively was banned, alarming run-ins with wild cougars have doubled, to 600 a year. Pets have been killed, humans have been stalked and hurt.

Passed by Washington voters two years ago, Initiative 655 made it illegal for hunters to use dogs and bait to hunt bears, cougars and bobcats. The Spokesman-Review supported it and a similar proposal in neighboring Idaho because we felt that using bait and hounds to hunt bears wasn’t ethical. We were uneasy, however, that the Washington measure added a ban against hunting cougars with dogs. Cougars are so secretive, it’s virtually impossible to hunt them without dogs. Cougars are seen only when they want to be. And that can be too late. Ask Dante Swallow. The 6-year-old was bringing up the rear of a group of campers and counselors hiking near Missoula July 31 when a cougar that had been stalking him pounced. He’s alive today because the big cat’s fangs missed his jugular vein by a quarter of an inch.

“You’ve got to realize that a small child is just another piece of food to them,” said Marshal Reiber.

At this point, with the cougar population soaring and becoming bolder, animal activists are urging restraint. It’s too early to tell if a problem exists, they bleat. Tell that to residents of nearby Painted Hills, where a cougar on the prowl has forced neighbors to abandon walks in the woods and to watch their children and pets closely.

Sure, development has cut into wildlife habitat. But Washington voters made matters worse by trying to do too many things with one initiative, causing the cougar count to spin out of control. Now, state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, proposes to override the cougar portion of the initiative during the 1999 legislative session. That’s a good idea; this law ought to be reconsidered.

Until then, let’s pray the marshal’s forecast doesn’t become an epitaph on someone’s grave.