Dear Editor:
I’d appreciate expressing a viewpoint on the killing of a cougar recently, the event which took front page of your newspaper.
I live right on the edge of the Capilano northern rainforest, at Park Royal, thus the big cat was in my neighborhood. When I read your print, saw the photograph of this beautiful cat given with the first-hand report by the cyclist who met up with the cougar, I was enraged that the only option the wildlife conservationist and local police could come up with, was to shoot and kill this animal.
You cannot relocate cougars, said the wildlife conservationist. But there’s no reason given as to why this is not possible. The cougar was not displaying the aggressive traits of a cougar. No, it showed no interest in attacking the cyclist. “He seemed timid.”
I googled to try and find out why you cannot relocate a cougar, especially one that is a first native of B.C. and we have encroached on its turf. Do we not owe it as true wildlife conservationists to protect these cougars? Is the cougar at fault, especially for not being aggressive but respectful in the encounter?
I read several stories about the aggressive cougar that showed no fear of humans. Cougars have attacked people but generally and to quote the wildlife expert conservationist “are afraid, fearful of humans.”
This particular cougar didn’t realize it was going to be killed, for being there, but if it had been aggressive or fearful like cougars are suppose to be, would it have been relocated?
Sheryl Bjerre
West Vancouver
Editor’s note: Conservation officer Chris Doyle responds:
“The reason the cougar was destroyed was because of its behaviour. Unfortunately this cougar decided to be frequently in an urban environment and its behaviour was a bit concerning in that it was approaching humans and it had no fear of humans. We could tranquilize a cougar and move it but we wanted to do the right thing. Given what would be that cougar’s natural home range on the South Coast, there are very few places where you could guarantee there would be no interactions with humans. And because cougars are territorial animals as well, we wouldn’t want to just drop the cougar off in an another animal’s territory where it’s in competition for natural food in that area.”
