Monday, May 04, 2009

State: Cougar killings come down to liability

The debate over what should happen when cougars encounter humans is heating up again. After a New Mexico Department of Game and Fish warden darted a female cougar in the backyard of an Eldorado home April 20 and later euthanized it, angry callers and letter writers lambasted the agency for "trigger happy" tactics. Albuquerque resident Charlotte Salazar thinks just the opposite. Her 5-year-old son was attacked by a cougar last May during a family hike on a popular Sandia Mountain trail. Salazar believes wildlife officers aren't doing enough to control the cougar population. The debate over what should happen when cougars encounter humans has changed little in 30 years, said Marty Frentzel, public information officer with the state Department of Game and Fish. For the state, the decision over euthanizing a captured cougar comes down to one word: liability. Game and Fish Department officials worry about getting sued if someone is attacked by a cougar that was captured and released elsewhere. That fear isn't unwarranted. In a 1996 incident in Arizona, a black bear that had been captured, tagged and released into a mountain range near Tucson badly mauled a teenage girl in her tent. The girl's family sued the Arizona Game and Fish Department, claiming the agency shouldn't have released a bear when it knew the animal had previously shown no fear of humans. The state settled the case out of court for $2.5 million...Santa Fe New Mexican

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