STOP MEASURE 19 FROM OVER TURNING MEASURE 18, THE VOTERS WILL PROTECTING COUGAR FROM BEING KILLED WITH DOGS!
They say it is all about saving children from being harmed by cougar. Yet in over 100 years no one have been harmed by a cougar in-spite of a very flawed cougar management plan, out of control poachers, and unethical hunters that kill more cougars than are legally killed; making it more unsafe for livestock and humans. Oregon Department Of Fish and Wildlife Dr. Jackson
reports that killing more cougar creates more cougar conflicts, killing
LESS cougar reduces cougar conflicts. M19 is not about saving children, its about making money for poachers and houndsmen. M19 will only make poaching and unsafe hunting easier to do. M19 will support Black Markets such as California's Black Market of wildlife parts that is second to their illegal drug traffic BOTH of which traffic children. M19 will not increase income to rural Oregon communities, will not make it safer for our children or livestock. We already have a hound-hunting Bill for cougars. Decapitating cougar cubs, ripping their legs from their sockets while their mother is treed and shot in all four paws before she falls to the ground and the dogs rip her apart too; IS NOT A SPORT. IT IS AN ILLNESS. Is this the kind of reputation we want for Oregon??
Since M18 was voted in, right around State Legislature time there are unusual sitings or conflict with cougar that are out of character for them. Many of these types of conflicts with cougars could be due to the fact that cougar cubs are some of the few wildlife that can be taken from the wild and immediately domesticated. Please view the YouTube links below confirming this.
It could be that these out of character cougar issues happening around State Legislature time, and especially the young; are caught in the wild and held in captivity and then released around humans with the intent of creating cougar hysteria and getting this into the news to help support killing them with bills at the legislature. The pattern over the years is so consistent that it could be so.
Folks want cougars killed because it lines their pocket-books and they don't give a rip about your kids. Yes, if a human predator can fly a plane into the Trade Towers, sexually molest children at a Catholic school or in a University shower - they will harm your child by placing a domesticated, abuse, confused and starving cougar in harms way just so they can get a Bill passed at State Legislature. ALL cougar issues, ALL child deaths are HUMAN caused.
BETWEEN NOW AND NEXT LEGISLATIVE SESSION WHEN M19 MAY APPEAR, DON'T BELIEVE EVERY COUGAR SCARE STORY TO BE A COUGAR THAT WAS RAISED IN THE WILD. Please view the YouTube links below to learn how easy it is to raise cougars in captivity.
License To Protect
There is a better plan to manage our wolves and cougar.
PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION LINKED BELOW IN SUPPORT OF "License To Protect"
OREGON'S RETURNING WOLVES AND DWINDLING COUGAR POPULATION FROM BAD
POLICY MAKING, HUNTING PROGRAMS, AND KILLING THEM SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY
WERE SEEN!
MORE DETAILS ABOUT LICENSE TO PROTECT CAN BE FOUND AT THE "LICENSE TO PROTECT" BUTTON ABOVE.
At the end of the day when the politics are done, Oregonians are the land ethic and moral responsibilities they choose to be to protect who we are and all that makes our State unique.
License To Protect would help revitalize rural Oregon economy and protect the Oregon we all love.
Representative Peter Buckley and Jayne Miller an Oregon cattle ranchers
daughter who designed the Bill, were able to submit License To Protect
at the State Legislative session last year. However the Agriculture
Committee changed it so much that it was no longer recognizable as the
original idea with it’s unique benefits to Oregon.
From town
hall meetings, to hunters, local ranchers, and urban Oregonians; the
original concept of License To Protect has the promise of being very
popular with Oregonians across the State. We are urging this Bill be
reinstated in it's original format this upcoming Legislative session in
February 2012.
License To Protect would create a new employer
for Oregon Department Of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) by way of the
non-hunting Oregonian (or any Oregonian) buying a nonlethal license for
cougar or wolves at the same cost as a killing license; thus reducing
the numbers of wolves and cougar killed. Each tag sold will remove a cougar or wolf from ODFW's allotted harvest quota, thus reducing the killing of cougar and wolves. The more LTP's sold, the more wolves and cougar are saved - using all the money for programs that protect them and all parties concerned. ODFW, The Federal Government
Wildlife Agency, Oregon's Agriculture Department and any other agency
involved with the killing of cougar and wolves; would be required to
hold to the letter of the law License To Protect and not increase kill
quotas to offset the cougar and wolves saved from death that LTP would
achieve. Currently, there are more Bills and programs from the above
organizations established without an environmental impact risk factor or
unbiased outside peer review done before thrusting them upon Oregon’s
ecosystems; to kill cougar and wolves, thus insuring that there is no
true protection for either species at this time.
ALL funding
from License To Protect would be strictly monitored. The funds from
this Bill would then be used to provide open wildlife corridors,
non-lethal livestock protection programs, wildlife public safety
education, compensate livestock owners any documented loss from cougar
or wolves, develop eco-business, and as proven in other State's small
rural towns that have wolves; would encourage a larger year-round
income from tourist predator wildlife watching than hunting them ever
brought in. As well as the tourist income this Bill would encourage,
the statistics show there are currently more non-hunting Oregonians
(approx 3.8 million) and more wildlife watchers ( 1.7 million) than
there are hunters (282,000), so the funds used in LTP’s life giving
programs could be substantial.
The logistics of presenting this
option to the public can be as simple as a check box on their tax
documents - right next to the wildlife funds that ultimately support
hunting. Cougar and wolves would not only be the keystone species for
wildlife, but also a keystone bridging the gap between rural needs and
urban understanding of them.
License To Protect will generate
money and a good reputation for Oregon, saving our small population of
returning wolves and dwindling cougar numbers from sports hunting,
poaching and killing them simply because they were seen.
But
most of all License To Protect gives every Oregonian an opportunity to
be an overseer to our great natural predators and connects every
Oregonian to good land ethic. The cougar and wolves thank you and so
do the ecosystems they sustain for us all.
Thank you for signing
our petition requesting License To Protect become a Bill at the
February 2012 Oregon State Legislative Session.
THE ABOVE PICTURE IS OF THE LONE WOLF FAMOUS FOR HIS STRATEGIC TROT ACROSS OREGON! NOT UNLIKE THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT, THE BRAVE YOUNG WOLF'S LONELY JOURNEY ACROSS THE STATE OF OREGON IS AN INSPIRATION AND IMPORTANT STATEMENT TO US ALL! WOLVES AND COUGAR BELONG HERE IN OREGON AND THEY HOLD A HIGHER VALUE FOR OREGON'S WILDERNESS AND CITIZENS THAN KILLING THEM. THEY NEED OUR PROTECTION, AND WE NEED THEIRS! STOP KILLING THEM TODAY!
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How to use OreCat site:
The buttons to take you to different pages on our site are on just under the first cougar picture.
The "
Cougar Science" button talks about Professor William Ripple's studies in the Zion National Park and why we must not sports kill the cougar or wolves with or without hounds as well as Dr. John W Laundre' studies and Aldo Leopold. Oregon Cougar Action Team supports the preservation of the wolf and our efforts to do so are documented on this page.
The
"Livestock Safety Plan" has excellent links to many types of pen and building plans, safety data, livestock husbandry information and many more great topics all for FREE. Our partner WWW.MountainLion.org has an excellent reference library that can answer your concerns about live stock protection, safety, and the biology of our great cat and is also applicable for wolf issues. Go to their website and click on "Library" for these FREE reports and data or go to our "Livestock Safety Plan" button and see a sampling of data from their library. Also on our "Livestock Safety Plan" button, Defenders Of Wildlife has a FREE 26 page PDF document on livestock safety and none lethal predator management. Save our tax payer dollars and print this document so our tax dollars don't have to pay for a trapper or hounds-men to kill a great cat or wolf or compensate a rancher for predator losses. The material is here and it is free!
The
"Donation button" takes you to our donation site and free mug with a $50.00 donation. All donations are tax deductible.
The
"Cougar Politics button" takes you to the history of cougar politics here in Oregon.
The "
Cougar Truth button" takes you to various stats on cougars including
POACHING. Lots of material and reference to read on this page so make cup of tea and settle in for the evening!
HOW MANY COUGAR DO WE HAVE? HOW MANY DO WE NEED? BEATS ME, LETS STOP KILLING THEM AND FIND OUT!
Oregon needs an outside unbiased peer review of their cougar population and the policies that impact them. We need to be assured that our vote for Measure 18 are being honored before this irreplaceable resource, the cougar, disappears!
Of the two predators, wolves will overbear cougar, kill their young, steal their kills and have forced cougars to change their ranges. All of these factors have been left out of ODFW’s already poorly written cougar management plan.
Why Oregon's cougar population model count is wrong:
1. ODFW NEWS ARTICLE Statesman Journal
September 17, 2010, "Mandatory reporting: Numbers are lagging. Most
hunters are not reporting the results of their big-game and turkey
hunting tags despite the fact that it is mandatory." High percentage of
mandatory reporting is not happening = high percentage of cougar kills
are not counted and deducted from the amount of cougar we are being told
we have.
2. Poaching is out of hand in Oregon. More deer, elk and cougar are poached than legally killed according to ODFW and Oregon State Police stats on poaching. Poaching costs Oregon taxpayers millions of dollars in lost wildlife, enviromental damage and administrative/law enforcement burdens. ODFW did not even know the record numbers mule deer
were being poached until they found out by accident while doing another
study on them. ODFW does not know how many cougar we have either.
Study: Poachers kill as many deer in Oregon as hunters
By Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has found that poachers are killing as many mule deer as legal hunters.
3. Incorrect cougar sightings are not being corrected and deducted from ODFW Cougar population model count.
4. ODFW has never held to the letter of the law regarding Measure 18. Apparently after Measure 18 in 1994 the hunters and hound dog kennels were losing money. In response to this ODFW used Measure 18 as a good reason to kill more cougar without dogs than had been killed with dogs before Measure 18! ODFW accomplished this increased killing program without dogs by changing their internal hunting policy regarding cougar, increased the cougar hunting season to one year, decreased the tag sales and included them in a package tag deal. In-spite of no one ever being harmed by a cougar in Oregon, ODFW also started a mandatory "pubic safety kill" of 3000 cougar which sunset unsuccessfully in 2010. Then in 1994 ODFW picked an arbitrary number to start their computer cougar population model.
The arbitrary number was not supported by any science telling us if this was a sustainable population for Oregon's cougar or even a correct population count to begin with. It was a political decision, not a decision based on sound science. This arbitrary number model system has caught the attention of famous biologists such as Dr. Jane Goodall and prestigious communities such as the Smithsonian who have written about ODFW's flawed cougar management plan as being a very bad plan. California has only 4000 to 5000 cougar and according to their Fish and Wildlife officials their cougar population is declining in-spite of decades of a no hunting policy and a mandatory open space program for wildlife. Washington State uses much the same plan that ODFW is using (minus the 3000 mandatory public safety kill program that did not work and sunset in 2010) and their cougar population has plummeted like a rock. So why did Oregon’s cougar population not decline? Because our cougar population model count was wrong from the beginning. If ODFW is completely comfortable with their plan, why are they unwilling to have an outside unbiased peer review done?
It took us approximately 47 years for cougar to rebound from a population of 200 to 3000. It is not possible for a cougar population to triple or even double in a lesser amount of time while under siege of a more aggressive hunting program(s) and less open spaces that their social structure requires. We don't have 6000 cougar. Yet ODFW
continues to claim their arbitrary computer numbers are correct.
However they are killing more cougar than before Measure 18. In
addition, more cougar are poached than legally killed.
On a somewhat dimmer "bright side" ODFW stats show that there are less cougar conflicts with LESS killing. ODFW noted that cougar conflicts increased when ODFW's internal policies increased the killing of cougar. So, ODFW's cougar "management" plans that were started in retaliation to Measure 18 have succeeded in making livestock, pets and humans more unsafe and the cougar exploited. We are paying ODFW valuable tax dollars for wrong information and this is not right.
Washington's killing program, which ODFW has copied, has caused their cougar population to drop like a rock. They may have only 1600 left. California has only 4000 to 5000 cougar and according to their Fish and Wildlife department, their cougar numbers are declining. California for decades has had a ban on killing cougar. They also have set aside millions of dollars to purchase more open spaced dedicated to wildlife. Yet California according to ODFW has less cougar than Oregon which has for the last 17 years been killing cougar for Sports or poaching in record numbers! The numbers don't add up! Oregon does not have 6000 cougar and ODFW cannot with any reliable science support those numbers. And that is why they cannot hit their target mark, we don't have the cougar population to support that.
It appears that ODFW's real plan is to make Oregon's cougar extinct.
According to Mountain Lion Foundation: Oregonians need to ask two questions regarding their cougar:
1. If killing 6,762 cougars over a 44-year time (1918- 1963) period once almost wiped out the cougar population in Oregon, why does ODFW believe that killing 7,468 cougars over the past 43-years (1963 -2006) of regulated cougar hunt hasn't produced similar results?
2. Washington has the same cougar hunting restrictions, as well as analogous cougar hunting policies, without the additional 3000 "Public Safety" administrative removal plan which did not work and sunset in 2010. Washington's policies and actions have resulted in a significant reduction in their cougar population. Why does ODFW believe that similar results are not taking place in Oregon?
FACTS
*ODFW Cougar Ecology by Dr. Jackson: Collard cat studies show the impact that
humans have on cougar mortality. (Only the legal percent of sold tags
are counted and not the other human caused deaths). ODFW Stats show 32%
of cougar are poached, 27% are killed legally (Poached cougar exceed
licensed kills), 27% are killed from conflict, for a total of 86% of
cougars killed by humans. Cougars killed by natural causes: 37% from
other cougars, 31% from disease, 20% from parasites, and 11% from
injury.
*ODFW Stats show cougar weights are down from 150# to 133# for males, and 120# down to a shocking 82# pounds for females. Deer are much smaller now too. THESE ARE STRONG INDICATORS OF AN OUT OF BALANCE, UNHEALTHY, AND DAMAGED ECOSYSTEM. BEFORE WE INSTALL YET ANOTHER SPORTS HUNTING BILL, IT IS MORE PRESSING TO FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE HEALTH OF OUR WILDLIFE AND ECOSYSTEM FIRST.
We can’t keep killing them to find out whats wrong. We need a better plan.
Not all cougars that show up in your neighborhood are raised in the wild BUT HOWEVER THEY SHOW UP IT IS BECAUSE OF ODFW'S POOR COUGAR MANAGEMENT PLAN. Some cougar have been exploited by way of domesticating them! See the below YouTube presentations:
Cougar training....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO7Cg6IJoRY&feature=related
BigCatRescure cougar data very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feavfdrhBwc
Proof cougars can be domesticated and released into the public.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1tih6dsjCg&feature=related
and oh boy this one too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5i4hRQogj8&NR=1OreCat does not endorse pet cougars.Please visit our other pages and links for more information about how to co-exist fear free with cougar, livestock protection, pet protection and much more! Other excellent reference material: Ron Baker's "The American Hunting Myth" may be found at www.Amazon.com, and the DVD "Lords Of Nature, Living In The Land Of Great Predators" can be found at www.LordsOfNature.org It is an excellent document covering Professor William Ripple's study of cougars and our ecosystems. OreCat has a copy to use in our many presentations.