Cougar(s) prowl Hailey area

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By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

There have been no reported kills by hunters since the local cougar season opened Sept. 15. The lions, however, have been more successful, with two domestic rabbits eaten, one dog maimed and another dead.

That was the tally reported last week by residents of Hailey.

Dean Smith, who lives on North River Street, said he didn’t hear a thing when a lion padded up to his doorstep and tore his dog’s throat out late Sunday night.

Monday morning, Smith found the 8-month-old, mixed-breed puppy dead at the end of its six-foot tether, large paw prints in the dirt outside his house and blood smeared on his front door, he said.

Early Monday evening, apparently, the lion was back. Barbara and Dale Bradshaw, who live across the intersection from Smith, said they were in their front yard when a Hailey police cruiser arrived. The officer told them to get inside their house, Barbara Bradshaw said, and that’s when she saw the big cat slinking up Galena Street.

"She was beautiful," Barbara Bradshaw added.

Smith said he was inside his house when the cougar pawed at his front door and then walked the perimeter of the house.

Police eventually chased the cat away, according to Dale Bradshaw.

Tuesday night, Roberta Kay’s rabbits were eaten. Kay, who lives on Broadford Road, said a lion came into her barn and pulled two of her rabbits to pieces through the bottom of an elevated, wire-mesh cage.

"The only thing left was the head," she added.

That same night, Kay’s neighbor’s dog was attacked. LeeAnn Fairchild said that she and her husband woke up to a noise at 1:30 a.m. and discovered their 45-pound Brittany Spaniel being attacked by a cougar on their covered back deck.

The cougar had the dog by the neck, Fairchild said, and was so engrossed in the attack that her husband was not able to scare it off. He was looking for his shotgun when the dog managed to escape and the cougar ran off, Fairchild said, adding that the dog suffered about 40 puncture wounds and a severed nerve but is now doing fine.

On Thursday afternoon, Hailey police officer Jeff Frost chased a large male cougar back into the hills after a family reported seeing it by the river north of Hailey where they were fishing, Frost said.

Last year, regional wildlife biologist Bruce Palmer explained that Wood River Valley residents historically have not approved of killing mountain lions, particularly in close proximity to the human-populated valley floor.

Kay, who has been a Hailey resident for 17 years, summed up that sentiment: "We live in Idaho," she said. "Mountain lions come with the territory."

Not everyone is so nonchalant.

Maurice Hornocker is a wildlife biologist who has been researching lions and tigers since the mid 1960s. In a telephone interview from his home in Hailey, he said that lions and people don’t mix.

"Aside from the dog (being killed)," he said, "a cougar coming into the neighborhood is the result of the territory being fully occupied. And the old animals—not being able to make a living—are finding easy food in neighborhoods."

Eventually, he added, someone’s kid could be attacked.

Hornocker said that opening the area to hunting could make more room for healthy mountain lions, but that it would be better to have a selective hunting program to cull the weaker lions that are coming into neighborhoods.

In January, Department of Fish and Game conservation officer Lee Frost said that the north Hailey cougar predicament is one of the stickiest situations he has encountered.

There are three possible resolutions, he said: Do nothing, tranquilize and relocate the animals or kill them.

Relocating the animals is not as easy as it seems, according to Frost, who said that capturing a problem cougar could involve a dangerous chase through town with dogs and people, brightly colored drug-filled darts that could easily be lost and later found by children and possible damage to property. Also, he added, the drug used to tranquilize the animal, called Capturall, stays in the cat’s system for 30 days and could result in a hunter eating tainted meat.

"We’re not going to turn our backs on these problems," Frost said, "but it’s going to have to be thought through well."

Last May, after a series of meetings between residents from various southern Idaho cities and the Department of Fish and Game, lion hunting in the Hailey area was authorized by the Fish and Game Commission. The commission is composed of seven citizens appointed by the governor.

In response to the recent cougar incidents, Hailey Police Chief Jack Stoneback said last week that he and his colleagues are hoping the problem cougars are the ones hunters get this season.