Two young and very hungry cougars were captured and killed by conservation officers in Port Alberni late last week.
Sgt. Stuart Bates of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said officers were called out to a forested area near Carriere Road on May 15 following reports that two cougars had attempted to attack humans and other animals.
Officers eventually located the cougars and executed them.
“It’s not the outcome we want,” Bates said. “But we can’t allow that behaviour in town.”
According to Bates, the cougars tried to attack someone’s dog and followed a woman and a toddler that was in a stroller.
“It actually followed the stroller to within two to three feet,” he said.
Bates said the cougars were no more than six months old, very emaciated, extremely hungry, and had no ability to hunt for themselves.
“Obviously, they had been separated from their mom for a while and were unable to feed themselves,” he said. “They were really really skinny.”
Last month, another cougar was hit by a car in Port Alberni and officers suspect that it was the young cougars’ mother, but aren’t sure.
“We suspect that might have been the mother,” Bates said.
Capturing the young cougars and relocating them to another forested area on the Island would have been cruel and only prolonged their pain, suffering and death, said Bates.
“They will just starve to death,” he said. “That would have been the cruellest thing to do.”
Rehabilitation wasn’t an option either, said Bates.
“Cougars have to learn how to kill from their mother,” he said.
Bates explained that cougars live with their mom for around 20 months, where they learn how to hunt and fend for themselves. He said these cougars lost their mother and therefore had no knowledge of what they should and should not hunt.
“Because mom is not there to teach them, they don’t know what they are and aren’t suppose to attack,” Bates said. “They’re just hungry and they go ‘well that moves so maybe I can attack it.’”
At the end of the day, Bates said it is unfortunate that the cougars had to be put down.
“It’s not what we wanted but we can’t allow cougars show that kind of behaviour and tolerance towards people,” he said.
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With files from CBC
Nicholas Pescod
