Letter: Cougar population out of control

Published 9:41 am Thursday, January 9, 2020

By Staff Reports

I grew up on our land in the 1950s and 1960s riding horses and helping my grandfather with his cows that pastured here with never a cougar confrontation. This continued in the 1970s with my husband.

In the 1980s and 1990s our children roamed this area, sometimes camping as far away as a mile or more from our house with never a cougar confrontation. In the beginning of the 2000s our grandchildren continued enjoying the land without cougar confrontations.

But, because of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s mismanagement of cougars and the introduction of wolves, it is no longer safe!

Our granddaughters’ three 4-H pigs were killed by a cougar. Three of my horses have been attacked by cougars. My cousin’s donkey was killed by a cougar. And, we now have virtually no deer left!

It is time to stop hazing and collaring the cougars to study them! Reduce their numbers! Control their population!

Protect the citizens, not the predators!

Oly Burnett

Chewelah, Wash.

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