T.S. Eliot wrote “April is the cruelest month”. We who work and volunteer at the Jackson County Animal Shelter might well argue that May is even worse, because every year as the calendar creeps closer to June the general level of stress at the shelter slowly builds like a calm before a summer storm. We know all to well what’s about to happen, because it’s happened every late spring for as far back as anyone can remember.

Imagine showing up for work one morning and there’s a line of people waiting for the door to open, and most of them are holding a box or a cage with one or more cats in it. So you start your day scrambling to take care of a flood of cats and kittens, but the flood never stops. Hour after hour, all day long, and day after day until your week becomes a blur of cats cats cats, people keep showing up with a feral cat that’s been getting into the trash, or a tame stray who’s been hanging around the house as if he might move in someday, or a litter of accidental kittens whose eyes haven’t even opened yet, or a formerly beloved pet cat that the family just can’t keep anymore, or sometimes it’s the neighbor’s cat who been caught fertilizing the wrong garden for the very last time, and on, and on, and on it goes–for months.

Your public animal shelter employees and the army of volunteers who support them work tirelessly to find good, loving homes for our community’s homeless pets, but the sheer number the public drops off at the public shelter each breeding season is overwhelming. We find good homes for hundreds, but thousands more are lost.

There is a simple and inexpensive way to help: please spay/neuter your cats, and if there are strays wandering around your neighborhood, call and we’ll help you get them fixed, too. If you need financial assistance, low-cost spay/neuter certificates are readily available by calling Spay/Neuter Your Pet (SNYP) at 858-3325, or visit www.spayneuter.org.

Want to help by adopting a cat or kitten, or by volunteering at the public shelter to help take care of them? If so, please call Friends of the Animal Shelter at 774-6646, or visit us on the Web at www.fotas.org.

Robert Casserly is a communications manager for Friends of the Animal Shelter.

A coalition of conservation and animal welfare groups has urged lawmakers to reject legislation that would overturn Measure 18, an initiative approved by voters in 1994 that banned the use of hounds for hunting cougars and bears. The bill, HB 2971, would permit the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to deputize trophy hunters as government agents and allow the hunters to use hounds to kill cougars. In an April 1 letter to legislators and Governor Ted Kulongoski, a host of national and Oregon-based organizations, including Big Wildlife, Oregon Chapter Sierra Club, The Humane Society of the United States, BARK, and Oregon Natural Desert Association among others, said the proposal would undermine Measure 18.

“Legislators should respect the will of voters, who overwhelmingly supported Measure 18. Voters passed the ban not only because they believe hounding is unsportsmanlike but because they support conserving a diversity of wildlife in the state,” the letter said. The organizations also contend the reinstatement of hounding of cougars would adversely impact other wildlife, including endangered species, since dogs sometimes pursue and harass non-target wildlife. Hounds have also been known to chase bears and cougars with young, increasing the risk that cubs could be separated from their mothers. The coalition also said it was concerned the hounding of cougars could increase poaching of wildlife. “In states where hounding of cougars and bears is still permitted, it is not always easy for wildlife officials to distinguish between the legal use of dogs to pursue an animal and illegal use,” the groups wrote.

In addition, the organizations said they were deeply troubled by a number of ODFW actions that have steadily rolled back safeguards for cougars. “Over the years, the agency has bent over backwards to accommodate trophy hunters disgruntled with the ban. For example, the agency has reduced cougar tag fees to a paltry $11.50, extended the cougar hunting season to ten months and in some areas year-round, and permitted hunters to kill two cougars per year. As a result, more cougars are being killed by hunters in Oregon than ever before,” the letter said.

The coalition urged officials to halt the ODFW’s cougar plan, which was launched earlier this year. The groups maintain in their April 1 letter that “There is no scientific justification for such an aggressive approach to addressing perceived conflicts with cougars. Nor are cougars a significant threat to public safety. There has never been a verified cougar attack on humans in Oregon and nothing in the CMP would prevent an attack.” They said the ODFW’s admission that the agency had “mistakenly” killed three cougars outside the plan’s target areas was proof that “the Department was incapable of fulfilling its mandate to protect Oregon’s wildlife.”

Spencer Lennard • Big Wildlife, POB 489, Williams, Oregon 97544 • Phone: 541-941-9242 • Email: bigwildlife@gmail.com

Jacksonville, Oregon – A coalition of ranchers, conservationists, and animal welfare groups has vowed to halt the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s plan to kill the state’s cougars. Despite public outcry over the ODFW plan, the agency has begun killing the big cats. According to the Associated Press last week, “A state wildlife agent trapped and shot two young cougars in Jackson County, the first of two dozen to be killed in that part of the state in a study of whether reducing populations of the animals improves public safety and reduces the loss of livestock. Nine cougars have already been killed in north-central Oregon as part of the study, state figures show.”

To make matters worse, opponents of the 1994 ban on hound hunting of cougars have introduced legislation (HB 2971) that would permit the ODFW to deputize sport hunters as agents to kill cougars. The bill would also allow hunters to use hounds to chase down cougars, essentially rolling back the ban overwhelmingly approved by voters. The pro-cougar coalition, recently formed in response to the ODFW plan, said it would aggressively campaign against what it called “the wholesale slaughter of one of Oregon’s most misunderstood animals.” The group said it was reaching out to other ranchers, faith groups, and recreation interests to save the state’s cougars.

“As a rancher who depends on the viability of a dairy herd to generate income, I am troubled that government officials are using scare tactics to affect policy and appease special interests that have tried to roll back safeguards for cougars,” said Michael Moss, a goat rancher in southern Oregon.

The coalition noted that cougars are not a threat. There has never been a verified cougar attack on humans in Oregon. And nothing in the plan would prevent an attack. Because attacks are so rare (the odds of being attacked by a cougar are less than winning the lottery), it is misguided to use lethal control that science shows is ineffective. Cougar expert, Dr. Rich Hopkins, said the ODFW’s plan” would not reduce the risk of being attacked in Oregon, as the current risk is so small as not to be reasonably measured. Those who live or recreate in cougar country expose themselves daily to many more risky activities and yet they never consider nor concern themselves with the true risk these activities pose.”

“I made a choice to live rurally in an area where cougars also live. In Oregon Cougar Action Team presentations we emphasize changing our human behavior, so that we can live alongside cougars and minimize potential conflicts, not only for human safety but their safety as well,” said Erin Volheim, a member of the Oregon Cougar Action Team.

The coalition also said the ODFW’s continued emphasis on killing cougars as a “management” tool would divert resources away from techniques that are far more effective in reducing conflicts, such as appropriate land-use planning, improved animal husbandry, and public education. The groups said individuals could take simple steps, like avoiding feeding wildlife, bringing pets in at night, sheltering domestic farm and ranch animals, installing motion lighting around their property, recreating with others while in cougar country, and educating their families about cougars – without instilling undue fear – to avoid conflicts with the wild cats.

“The ODFW plan is not about ‘management’ or ‘culling’ or dealing with ‘problem’ cougars. It is about killing, pure and simple. And deputizing hunters to do the dirty business of chasing cougars with hounds and gunning them down won’t make this plan any better,” said Brian Vincent, Communications Director for the newly created organization, Big Wildlife, an international wildlife protection organization.

Big Wildlife U.S. office:
Wildlife Canadian office:
PO BOX 332, Williams, Oregon 97544
541-846-7643; 541-941-9242                                                                                       bigwildlife@gmail.com

This is a story about a pit bull raised in a litter of Chihuahuas. It began with the Chihuahua mix pups, found on the side of the road on a cold November night. They were brought into the Jackson County Animal Shelter and when I came in to work the next day, I offered to foster them. There were five of them. Two black with ears like a bat and three black and white spotted. All five had hernias caused by a genetic condition, since it wasn’t life threatening, the Shelter staff decided to have the new adopters pay for the necessary surgeries in order to save the medical funds for more serious cases. The extra cost scared off a bunch of potential adopters and it took a couple months to get them all adopted.

When we were down to two pups left, a 6 week old pit bull was brought into the Shelter. Found as a stray, he was tiny and scruffy with skin so bad the staff had to inspect him for parasites. Turns out he just needed a bath, good food and lots of love. He was the same size as the Chihuahuas at that point, so I took him home and put him in with them. They were instant friends. The pit even matched with his black and white coat. If I blurred my eyes I couldn’t tell which breed was which!

I named the pit, Brutus, after the Great Dane raised in a litter of Dachshunds in the classic movie, “The Ugly Dachshund”. After a week or so, the spotted Chi mix was adopted and we were left with Brutus and one Chi named Maui. They were best buds. They shared a bed at night, ate from the same bowl, and wrestled all the time. When Maui was adopted, poor Brutus cried; he did not like being alone. My husband and I caved, and let him sleep in the bed with us and our three other dogs. And, since he didn’t have a kennel buddy anymore, I started taking Brutus to work at the Shelter with me. He sits on my chair with me for four hours every day. Everyone who walks by gives him a pat and he rewards them by whipping his tail back and forth as fast as he can and licking them with his extra long tongue.

And that’s where he is right now. Sleeping on my chair next to me, waiting like an angel for his “furever” home.

By: Sansa Collins
Manager of Volunteer Services
Friends of the Animal Shelter
www.fotas.org