I was saddened to read that Senate Bill 769, a bill that would allow counties to be excluded from Oregon’s ban on cougar hunting with dogs, is being considered by the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

Sen. Jeff Golden said it’s necessary to consider the opinions of those who feel strongly about the issue, and listen to people we don’t agree with. Hopefully, he will listen to my opinion.

My husband and I have lived in rural Eagle Point for more than 40 years on property with an abundance of wildlife, including cougars and deer. We have seen cougars in our yard on more than one occasion but have never had a problem with them. A neighbor did have a goat killed one night several years ago and assumed it was killed by a cougar, but that is the only incident we have heard of in this area.

A few weeks ago we found a deer than had been killed, half eaten, and buried under dirt, leaves and pine cones out behind an old shop building. That day we put a trail cam on the kill and caught on film several foxes, two coyotes, and a cougar feasting on the deer carcass off and on all night long, between 7:00 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. the next morning.

On any given day we have a dozen or more deer in our yard, and in 2024 we had a bumper crop of fawns. That would seem to indicate that the cougars have not played any role in declining deer populations in this area. But they most certainly played a significant role in keeping several other species of wildlife well fed, at least for one night.

Oregon voters passed the ban on hunting cougars with dogs and also rejected a proposal to overturn that ban. Hopefully, the Senate Natural Resources Committee will not support Senate Bill 769. Let’s save our cougars. And let’s save Oregon taxpayers the trouble and expense of having to vote again to keep the ban in place.