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| November 25, 2011, 5:25 pm |
WILLIAMS MAN SAVES GOAT BY KILLING COUGAR Here’s an oddball story for your day-after-thanksgiving enjoyment, courtesy of the Daily Courier’s intrepid business reporter Linsay Cathey.o o o oWILLIAMS — Jared Kiser woke up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning to a wild surprise on his front porch. A cougar was attacking his 1-year-old goat, Taco.“I walked out in my front room and something was on top of my goat,” said Kiser, 34, who heard a commotion outside.“The cougar actually had my goat’s neck in its mouth. If you looked out my window, you would’ve thought for sure he was a dead goat.”He grabbed his shotgun and headed for the door. He stood right outside the doorframe and shot the cougar behind the ear from about 10 yards away. Taco survived. “My goat is fine. That’s what I’m really happy about,” said Kiser, who was amazed to kill the 85-pound female cat that stretched about six-feet long from nose to tail. “It’s pretty rare to get a cougar.”Kiser said he rarely encounters problematic wild animals at his home in Williams, but he’s not surprised because he’s surrounded by land with thriving wildlife.Mark Vargas, district wildlife biologist at the Rogue Watershed district of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said cougar complaints and reported sightings are common year-round in Southern Oregon. During October, Vargas’ office in Central Point received six cougar complaints, three of which came from Josephine County.“Usually we get 100 to 200 complaints a year on cougars,” Vargas said.During the same month, nine cougars were killed by hunters and checked into his office. So far in 2011, 34 cougars have been killed and turned in at the ODFW office, which is average to a bit below average for the year, Vargas said.“We average about 40 cougars a year,” Vargas said. “Most people harvest a cougar during elk season.”Since Kiser killed the cougar while protecting his livestock, he’s allowed to keep the dead cat. He sent it off to a local taxidermist. If the cougar was killed as a threat to human safety, it would be sent off for testing and research to nonprofit and educational organizations, Vargas said.If someone kills a cougar on their land or while hunting with a tag, they must report the kill within 10 days to ODFW at 541-826-8774 or Oregon State Police at 541-955-6370.o o oPast blogsREDWOODS, OCEAN HIGHLIGHT DAMNATION CREEK TRAILATTEMPT TO EXPAND ROGUE RIVER PROTECTION HEADED TO CONGRESSDUCK HUNTING AND WHY PEOPLE HATE LISTENING TO CELL PHONE CONVERSATIONS |
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