Hard to ignore a cougar once it has a run-in with humans

FRIDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — The leghold trap is a nasty device. It’s designed to snap shut onto the leg of a fur-bearing animal and keep it chained there until a human comes along and kills it.

Animals trapped in them have been known to chew off their own leg in their desperation to escape.

So when Conservation Officers placed several leghold traps around a bait in Pinantan in hopes of catching a cougar that had killed a resident’s lamb, some people were offended.

In fact, some felt the cougar should simply have been left to go its own way.

Others are firmly of the opinion that a cougar that kills a lamb represents a danger to humans, especially to children.

However, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service  says cougars normally avoid people. Some experts say that, at the least, cougars are indifferent toward them. This particularly cougar ran away when confronted by the resident, who threw rocks and sticks at it. When it returned and was shot at, it again ran off. And when three young people encountered the cougar as they were walking home, the cougar stayed off the road and, though it hissed, apparently made no move toward them.

A fair conclusion is that this cougar wasn’t looking for humans and was in the area by accident. The CO says the animal was probably young and an unaccomplished hunter going for an easy prey — the lamb. It says cougars range through populated areas and tend to keep moving.

So why not ignore it? Well, it’s hard to ignore the public’s concern when a cougar comes onto a property and kills livestock. People who feel threatened need to be listened to. Other than live trapping it, tranquilizing it or hunting it down with cougar dogs — the CO Service has specially trained scent hounds — the other option is those leghold traps.

Each situation calls for a different approach. What’s practical and advisable in one situation might not be in another. If a cougar roams a particular area and people’s house cats start disappearing, that might require the use of the dog team, for example. In an urban area setting, where leghold traps might pose a danger to kids or domestic pets, maybe a live trap is best.

The CO Service assesses each situation based on experience. In this case, the COs thought the traps held the best chance of catching the cougar and relieving the concerns of Pinantan residents. It’s not a pleasant situation, but the cougar couldn’t be ignored once it had an encounter with humans.

Fortunately, there’s been no more sign of the cougar, and the traps were removed on Wednesday at the request of the resident who had the encounter with it.