February 13, 2014—Ha-Shilth-Sa—Page 13
Skinny cougar killed nears homes at Ehatis Stacy Miller spotted it first. She was driving home from work with her son at about 9 p.m. and it was standing in the road close to the homes of Ehatis reserve, attracted perhaps by the chickens outside one house. She thought it was a dog at first, but driving up to it her son said “is that a …” “That’s a cougar,” Miller said. It just stood there, staring. “Its eyes were bright.”
She honked her horn to chase it off, “but it barely ran away, and I drove off to tell my brother Cory.” Brother Cory Hanson, the resident hunter, had just woken from a nap when he was told of the animal, a cougar prowling around the remote community. Worried about the local kids, including his own two children who like to play outside, rain or shine, Hanson set out after the cat. “Safety is my priority for them,” he told
Ha-Shilth-Sa. His knowledge of animal behavior told him which direction the cougar was heading. “I proceeded to cut it off behind my uncle Fred’s home. Started behind the building and seen it right there. I was about 15 feet away from it. It tried running, but ended up in the back of my truck,” Hanson said. He described the animal as skinny.
Cougars come and go in this remote area, but sometimes when they’re around for a time, pets start to go missing, Hanson said. This is the second cougar Hanson has had to destroy this year. A few months back he was out with his dad, coming back from a day of hunting when he spotted a cougar pretty close to home, he said.