Today, I'll write a followup to yesterday's post about the cougar hunt in Sabino Canyon, AZ. This report indicates that things appear to be happening quickly, and fleshes out the story quite a bit (pardon the pun).
First of all, Rodney Coronado and a writer from Esquire magazine have been arrested for "being in a closed facility," and each is faced with up to 6 months in jail and being fined up to $5,000. I'm betting PeTA will help out with the fine and perhaps even attorney's fees for Coronado, which they have every right to do. But I do wonder how many of PeTA's contributors know where some of their bucks are going.
Second, the mountain lions have apparently been sighted in residential areas, though some question the validity of the sightings, saying they have not been confirmed. In addition to the sightings, the trapper who is tasked with dealing with the animals claims to have seen their tracks in the Canyon. I'm not 100% sure of the validity of the sightings, but when taken with the trapper's report, I'm leaning strongly towards believing that cougars are there and that they're too close to humans for safety.
Third, it turns out that these Sabion Canyon cougars are not being hunted to be killed, though killing them might have been the original plan. Apparently, they are to be live-trapped, after which they are to be sent to a rehabilitation center where they would spend the rest of their lives. At least that's the current plan.
But that may change. Opponents of trapping the cats and placing them in captivity say they know of no instances where that has been successful. (I'm not sure it is unsuccessful - I know that Wildlife Images, a wild animal rehabilitation center, has kept adult cougars for years, and I believe a couple of them were introduced as adults). In any event, there is also some talk that the cougars could be tranquilized and transported to wilderness far away from humans, or that harassment by bloodhounds would drive them away ("up the canyon").
I'm not a cougar expert by any means, but I don't see how removing them by any method (other than annhilation) could be a permanent fix. Cougars are territorial, and unless transported many miles away would, it seems to me, be likely to return. And I can't believe that harassing them by bloodhounds would be anything other than a temporary fix - once the bloodhounds are withdrawn, the offending cougars or other cats would move back in. What would discourage them from doing so, especially if their prey (deer) are present and the cats have lost their fear of humans?
Finally, as always seems to happen when extreme AR groups like Earth First! and true believers like Rodney Coronado take up a cause, the ugly specter of violence rears its ugly head:
There have been reports of death threats against wildlife officials, but Earth First said it will not harm anyone.
"People follow the hunters and by all nonviolent means work to stop them from treeing the lions and shooting them in their native habitat," Green said. "We do not condone death threats against people or animals."
Notice the careful parsing - Earth First! doesn't "condone" death threats. But neither do they condemn them. So Earth First! won't harm anyone, but neither will they discourage others from doing so. This sends a chilling message, at least to me.
Cougars are becoming a problem - and the Sabino Canyon case is important precisely because all the elements of the problem are so clearly apparent: cougars are definitely there, but how many and how big a threat are they now? Should action be taken now, before a human is attacked, or not? If not now, when? What action - and aimed at which species, deer (the prey), cougars or both?
There are no easy solutions here. But the involvement of Rodney Coronado and Earth First!, and the threat of violence that always seems to attend them, just doesn't seem to me to be helpful.
UPDATE: It turns out that all the turmoil is over 4 cougars. Gov. Janet Napolitano has staked out her position that the whole enterprise has been mishandled, has lacked public input and just doesn't appear to be a safety issue:
"They didn't get public input. They didn't really seek out the experts that are available in Arizona. They didn't evaluate other options. They didn't communicate with the public when they had the opportunity to," she said.
"In my view, Game and Fish has handled this about as poorly as a public policy issue and a public safety issue can be handled."
Napolitano denied she was micromanaging the lion issue but said the commission should be. "They ought to be the ones that have figured all of this out but they haven't but they're still proceeding to track," she said.
Napolitano said she wants to work with both the commission and department to "protect the lions and if there is a public safety issue -- and believe me, I just don't see it -- to deal with that." But she said Game and Fish has not been easy to work with [Emphasis added - ed.] . . . .
On the other hand, a LexusNexus search turned up an AP report ("High heat, low humidity hampering search for mountain lions" - 3/26/04) that the Canyon View Elementary School and the Canyon Middle School are a bit less cavalier, and have implemented policies to protect their students. Prudence is always a good thing.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's a fine article on the problem of the cougars in Sabino Canyon, AZ. Seven wildlife biologists are divided on what to do - three think the cougars pose no threat, three others think they well might (one takes no position). The former group advocates leaving the cougars to do their thing, the other group advocates removing them.
In a situation like this, I come down on the side of human safety. It's not good enough for me to hear that since cougars have not yet attacked anyone, they probably won't, and so we shouldn't act until an incident occurs. This is playing with fire - it's a little like saying that because you were once able to cross a street safely while blindfolded, you shouldn't ever worry about oncoming cars. In both cases, it's just a matter of time - if cougars and humans are in close proximity, and if the animals have lost their fear of humans, someone will be attacked. You can bet on it.
For the time being, though, this is all moot since the hunt has been suspended.
Brian