Legalizing the use of dogs for cougars in Oregon

Legalizing the use of dogs for cougars in Oregon
Photo credit to http://www.biology-blog.com/


Sometime in the 1980’s cougar hunting with dogs was banned because many anti hunters and animal rights activist voted this sport off as they said “ This sport gives the animals little chance to get away from the hunter” with this statement made there was much dispute and misunderstanding as hunters and protesters quarreled the statement. It did come to the agreement that the use of dogs made bagging of the animals possible, but it was the only way to hunt a cougar and keep the population in check because they have no predators in this area. As this was going on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife did a population count on the cougar and found that the population in the state of Oregon was around 1,500 cougars where they would liked to have had 3,100 cougars in the state this quickly lead to the banning of using dogs in the state of Oregon.
Over the last 20 years the cougars have had no threat of any kind to their population and have exploded in population. Which in turn has caused the deer and turkey populations to drop and a extremely fast rate however the quick drop of animal populations has just been noticed in the last 4 years.
There is simple proof that cougars were the cause of the dropping effect after a survey taken proving that one cougar alone will kill 4 to 5 deer and up to 18 turkey in a week of time (5 days) this is very hard to believe however it is true. Now go figure that a deer only has one to two babies every year where a cougar has 3 to 5 offspring in one year. Thank goodness for turkey or they would quickly run our deer population dry.
The cougars have recently been seen more often by people because there are so many they are running out of territory in some places. In result we are having record high threatening cougar encounters in Oregon. Luckily there have been a high number of cats killed in the last few years without the use of dogs at a number of 250 cats which is nearly 6% of the population. This seems like allot of animals but as soon as they have offspring in one year they create those numbers and more very fast.

In recent year’s livestock has been hammered very badly from cougars who are old and cannot sustain the power to take wild deer down so they kill typically sheep, cows, horses and chickens around houses.
It’s unfortunate that dogs aren’t used because the cats are currently at the number of approximately 5,100+ cats they are currently hunted by calling them in which can be threatening to the person calling them in, but for now you can shoot 2 cougars a year for 10 dollars a tag. The problem is that not many people see a cougar in their life because they are so elusive… This is until recent years when many cats have received rabies and been found stalking children.
If dogs could be used we could take the population to the correct 3,000 cougar mark within a few years.

One Week of White-Tails

_____One Week of Whitetail_____

My brother (John) and I were sitting at home on a November of 2007 and thinking about how unfortunate we were because we bow hunted all season long for 2 months and didn’t even get to draw our bows back on a deer, we both knew it was because we had black tail deer which were harder to hunt than white tail deer farther east than Oregon. We then got to thinking that it would cost a little bit of money but we could go visit our cousins in Idaho because their season went until December of 2007, we soon gathered up our savings and were going over to Idaho. Even our dad wanted to go and watch us and our mom and sister were going to visit our Aunt while Uncle John and our cousins Brandon and Derek brought us hunting to their spots and they would be hunting too!
Within 10 hours of driving we were at their house, we greeted each other and ate dinner. Our cousins were filled with anxiety for the next day we were going to a place called Mika’s bay in Idaho, and boy that night was the longest of all! We passed the time by watching white-tail deer tips and tactics. By midnight we fell asleep and soon woke up for the morning. We got some pancakes for breakfast thanks to our mom and Aunt Donna, and then started up the truck and headed off for what we did not know would be the start of 60 consecutive hours of cold hard Idaho white tail hunting.
On the way to the hunting spot we went over the general rules “boys don’t shoot at ANYTHING unless you are 100% SURE OF YOUR TARGET, make sure to take your time and make an ethical shot (we already knew all this but it’s more comforting to be sure), (Uncle John) you guys know that here in Idaho you can shoot does or bucks (male or female deer) you can also use your bows or guns here you are not limited to one or the other.
The trucked stop to the side of an old dirt road surrounded by hundreds of miles that were public land we could hunt on. We hoped out of the truck and opened the bed of the truck I grabbed my unique 30-06 and then we were off little John (my brother) was going with dad and Derek, while Uncle John, Brandon and I were going in our own separate group.
Soon we spotted a buck but he ran through a meadow where we were unable to get a shot. We then walked up a trail closed to all motorized vehicles figuring no lazy rifle hunter’s would go up there and road hunt illegally. A half hour later of hiking up the trail we topped the mountain this was about 2.5 miles from the truck and 3 miles of hiking. I got off the trail with Brandon and we crawled through the brush peering our heads from the brush, every 30 paces to see if any deer were eating in the grass, I peeked up and saw a doe she was taking a bight of buck brush. I really didn’t want to take a doe because it was the first day and we already saw so many deer, it then got our scent and ran to the edge of a 300 ft drop to a lake, I put my crosshairs on it but never shot partially because I wanted to see what it would do at the drop off, soon it jumped off the cliff and took twenty foot jumps downhill it went all the way down the nearly vertical cliff never stopping and made it to the bottom, and I then turn my head and looked at my cousin satisfied with all the excitement we saw throughout the morning. We walked down the trail a bit more but never saw another deer. However we did see some elk and moose droppings.
Little John called up and said he called in a 5x5 buck to twenty yards! But when he tried to raise the rifle it ran off and spooked. He then said we were to meet him at the truck and to move to a new spot. We hunted the rest of the day seeing no more deer and retired to the lodge.
The next morning I hunted out of a ground blind while sitting there I realized it was really cold! I was shivering badly due to the cold weather -1 degrees, I had my bow today and it soon got light out, after about an hour of waiting I heard trotting to the front of me so I raised my bow and drew it back… A doe and her old yearling came running out of the brush, I grunted to stop them and sure enough they stopped, and I settled my pin on the old does shoulder but she then started running again. I was unfortunate and missed that awesome opportunity so I waited, I soon heard a buck grunt so I made a grunt with my voice and sure enough he wasn’t 8 yards away this monster buck was walking around, I drew my bow and had it on his shoulders, but the buck was through too much brush for a bow. So he walked off unharmed, the rest of the day there was nothing at all, so I headed back to the house. That afternoon I hunted in our Uncles treestand but saw nothing.
This following morning I went back to the blind, unfortunately there was nothing at all in the woods. Until I heard a loud crack in the brush then another and another soon there was an old cow elk with her yearling, it was elk season and I could have easily shot her at 40 yards but I had no tag, and the sad thing is that she was to die soon anyway because her leg was broken and twisted completely around to the point that she couldn’t hardly walk. She should have been shot so she didn’t have to live like that but I was not going to do anything illegal, and so I let her walk off which ended that morning. The same evening I went out and sat by an old cedar tree alone enjoying the chipmunks and birds heading to their beds, and watching the sunset over the snowy mountains, I then heard crashing through the brush coming right towards me. This was scary because I knew there were a few grizzly bears around and packs of wolves, I had nothing but a bow so I crept against a tree and drew my bow back and what tops the hill is a 1200 pound bull elk that walks and stops broadside at 20 yards he was a 4x4 and it was elk season, however I had no elk tag and this was so unfortunate because I could shoot out to 50 yards. He stood there and harems of cows were with him. I the bull looked right into my eyes and stared a hair rising stare then snorted steam from his huge wet nose. He then trotted down the hill with his harem. This day was ended for hunting so Uncle John and Aunt Donna brought the whole crew of us up the mountain to show us around, we ended up finding a cow moose and got 15 yards from her. We took allot of photos but then soon headed back to the lodge.
This was the second to last day of hunting and none of us got a deer, we headed out to the place we went the first day, but this time in a new spot. Uncle John Brandon and I headed to a big field. We saw lots of deer but never could pull the trigger L, we hunted the whole day and I was getting worried I wouldn’t shoot anything. So I was back with the old 30-06.
We got word little John shot a doe and he needed help dragging it out of the ditch, Brandon and Uncle John along with myself were laughing hysterically because John was bragging that there was no way he would shoot a doe. We reached the trail and started walking down it... Soon we met little John and dad and they brought us to where the deer was and NO it was no little doe it was a friggin HUGE 5x5 buck that john shot. We all had fun taking care of the deer and could only hope that tomorrow (the last day) I would get a deer.

The last morning I headed out with dad and we were going to hunt hard to try and get one on the last day. I hunted all day not seeing one deer. Finally we were heading back to the trail almost running because we had 20 minutes to get back to the truck to get to church on time. I suddenly halted dad and said look, there was a doe grazing in a meadow and I’m not kidding you we had 15 minutes till the hunt was over, I raised the crosshairs clicked the safety off and put the sights right in the middle of the neck it was facing me but I knew with a gun she wouldn’t go far, I aimed and pulled the trigger and bam she hit the floor like a sack of potato’s and I was happier than a kid in a candy store dad patted my on the back and I couldn’t stop thanking him, we walked up and happily along with quickly gutted the deer and brought him to the truck, I really love Idaho it’s just a bit cold… I cannot tell you how fun it is to be in the outdoors and wish you could experience the fun I’ve had!
This is the end of my story and as I finish up the story I’m eating a venison burger from that Idaho deer that was so hard earned and I would like to say that it’s often that you will not get things until you almost give up. Look at me it was the last 15 minutes and I had given up all hope I just prayed to God I might see one more deer and look what happened!
I would like to thank everyone in the story but most of all I would like to thank God for letting me have this great meat and experiences along with allowing me to do things allot of teenagers cannot.
And by the way we did make it to church managing to only be 2 minutes late.

Morgan's Buck

John's Buck