Well, at least cougars,coyotes and bears.
Yes, over the last decade coyotes have been spotted boldly going where one would think coyotes would not care to go. One morning a coyote stopped at the end of my driveway and pondered me and my furry friends looking out my bay window pondering him. He was not the least bit spooked we were watching him, and took his good sweet time in sauntering away. I confess I was a bit unsettled by the encounter, because I could have been out in the front yard with my two dogs at the time Mr/Ms Coyote was taking his morning constitutional. Who knows what might have happened.
However, this year even more wild creatures are moving about the neighborhoods. Bears and cougars to be exact. Fortunately, some of them have been captured and released to their natural habitats that are (we're lucky) close by.
Last week folks reported several (I think 7) cougar sightings, but it was not until yesterday one was sited and treed in a north-east neighborhood. The police were called and stood by 'just in case', and eventually the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife authorities showed up, tranquilized the creature and carted it off.
Silly me, I assumed they would release it to the 'natural habitats close by'.
Then, this morning, watching the news, I was curious about the way the media was handling the story, and wondered why they were so vague about what happened to the cougar 'after' it was taken from the neighborhood. So, being the curious person that I am, I began snooping about the web. And I learned:
"The approximately 110-pound cougar was euthanized by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) staff, said ODFW spokesperson Meg Kanady, because it had lost its fear of people."
I was stunned. Once they had this beautiful creature under control, I would have thought euthanizing it would have been the very last resort. I'd like to know if veterinarians were call to examine the creature or, if they were not call, why? Was it because it was a holiday, and everyone was disturbed their festivities were interrupted? I'd hate to think that was the case. It seems to me the least they could have done was to take it possibly to the zoo, have their medical staff give it a physical, and draw some blood samples to check for disease and illness. Surely the zoo has an area they could have isolated it to prevent possible transfer of illness to the other animals.
Okay, I realize at this point I don't know the whole story, but as an amateur naturalist, this euthanasia really, really disturbs me. I think it disturbs a lot of other people too, otherwise the news report this morning would not have left out the part about the cougar being euthanized. Matter of fact one website was conducting a poll:
The cougar was "humanely euthanized" because it had lost its fear of humans. Do you agree with this decision? The results so far this morning. Yes, I do: 23.55%. No, I don't. 76.45%.
Actually, my thinking is all these creatures who have roamed away from their environment is not necessarily because it's summer, and they are hungry, and we are sloppy careless humans that leave garbage, trash and pet food lying about providing them with easy meals. I think they are trying to tell us something...and I think we should try to find out what that something is. Where's a good Shaman when you need one?
Anyway, I so very, very sorry about the outcome of yesterday's cougar incident. My personal opinion is it could have been handled much better. Maybe the holiday had something to do with it, maybe not. I simply hope this does not create a prescience, giving the Department of Fish and Wildlife an easy out to get rid of displaced wildlife.
Because THAT would be wrong on more levels than I can count.
No comments:
Post a Comment