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In Texas, they are a non-game species and may be virtually mowed down with a gun like a mangy coyote, a gopher or a rat year round. I have no personal interest in hunting a beautiful animal as a cougar or wolf for pure sport as it's not something I want to eat anyway. I can only see killing wolves and cougars for self-defense, defense of humans, children and pets or as an anti-depredation measure wherever the law permits it.

Should permits be required to take cougar or wolf? I would say no if the animal poses an immediate threat to persons or domestic animals. If a cougar, bear, wolf, wild dog, wild hog etc. were to attack me, I'm pulling my gun out to go BANG! summarily. Commie-fornia requires depredation permits to take lions that threaten livestock.
 
To answer the topic question....
Yes cougar hunting is legal in Washington state as well.

Here in Washington we have seen a uptick in cougar encounters* since the ban on hunting with hounds and further encroachment on what was once undeveloped land.

Please note that I am not saying that cougars should be eradicated , but a return to hunting with hounds
as well as , a better understanding of wildlife , and wildlife management , needs to happen.
Andy
* As in sightings , sign , said cats being heard and a few attacks of both people and animals.
 
Well, the cougar is an important species that should be kept in check through sound biology which drives sensible species management. All wildlife from mouse to moose should be soundly managed. In Idaho, gray wolves are a regulated game species now. Cougars are impossible to take without hounds so if they are overpopulating a state, hound bans make no sense. Commie-fornia did something stupid about seven years ago by banning hounds for black bear. Black bear are next to impossible to take without dogs so they overpopulate and some hunters give up on them. Then these big predators cause a menace to people, their livestock and/or their pets/children in their neighborhoods.

Do landowners/ranchers/farmers in OR, ID, MT and WA need any special permit to kill cougar/bear/wolf/bobcat/fox that are threatening livestock?

How are wild/feral hogs handled in the PNW states (if any such pigs exist in these states) in regards to killing them and the menace they may cause?

Kill means shoot, trap or poison.

Both predators and prey species become troublesome if their numbers are either too low or too high. No meat hunters want deer, moose and elk to become extinct but if their herds grow too large they cause deforestation, depletion of ground cover, a menace to motorists on highways, soil erosion and deprecate to damage the crops of farmers.

Too few predators then unwelcome varmints as rodents and rabbits go bananas in numbers. Too many predators then meat game species are threatened and/or livestock, people, children, motorists on highways and pets are threatened. Human development and highways also cause trouble with wildlife. Habitats are lost and man's infrastructure makes it difficult for wildlife to migrate. CA has a serious cougar problem because there are various population confined to various regions over that state so the migration and reproduction of cougars is severely upset and inbreeding occurs. The highways are barriers to migration. Cougars need a wide range to reproduce and keep the species healthy by keeping rare genes circulating. The African lion has similar migration, inbreeding and reproduction problems because the development of man upsets their habitat.


Oh that tricky balancing act from both Mother Nature and man.
 
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but I know 2 guys this year that both got black bears. Are they really that hard to get without hounds?
Typically yes as they are very wary and docile. I have probably been lucky to have seen as many black bears as I have in my life and even then most were brief sightings of the azz end heading North.

I had one stand up as I approached it once while deer hunting but it was more of a case of both of us surprising each other!
 
I'm not much of a hunter but I know 2 guys this year that both got black bears. Are they really that hard to get without hounds?

That is a simple calculation on the bears population explosion as a result from the use of hounds.
Sounds like a problem there. Alas this will require Biologist's a ten year study to determine the true population and resulting problem's incurred.
 
I was jumped by a PNW cougar when I was 20. She was a 36yr old waitress I worked with named Lori, in Corvallis. :D I learned to respect all cougars.

Cougar posts know its coming.
 
About The Name Cougar

The
COUGAR is not correctly called a PANTHER

1602543388111.png

and
MOUNTAIN LION is rather a misnomer. Cougars are the largest felids, cat family members, that do NOT even belong to the genus Panthera unlike true lions, tigers, jaguars and true panthers (leopards, especially black ones).

1602543440592.png

Like other non-
Pathera felids, they do not roar. Cougars dwell in most places in the New World from Canada to southern South America. They do sometimes dwell in mountains but live in almost all kinds of other New World terrain that is suitable habitat. They have no mane so the name LION is rather interesting as applied to COUGARS. The COUGAR is the one animal species that has more names in the English language than any other single species. In British vernacular, PUMA is common. COUGAR is the most proper term in American vernacular. After all, Mercury never made a car called a PUMA or a MOUNTAIN LION.


1602544499988.png

 
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Heck a couple winters ago the ODFW had to come out to the area where I live and shoot about 5 cougars that had taken up residence under peoples decks, outbuildings etc.

I was kind of hoping I would have gotten one - I would have probably kept quiet, fed it scraps & such - which I probably do now but never see them.

I threw the hindquarters of a deer out a few years ago on a burn pile and it was all gone the next morning!
 
A few years ago I set up a game camera on a promising wildlife superhighway -- there were deer tracks with bear tracks with cougar tracks all on top of each other. Anyway, I came back the next day to get the pictures. Thirty minutes after I'd set up that camera, a cougar casually walked down the trail. I looked and its prints were inside my prints. Gave me an eerie feeling.
 
Heck a couple winters ago the ODFW had to come out to the area where I live and shoot about 5 cougars that had taken up residence under peoples decks, outbuildings etc.

I was kind of hoping I would have gotten one - I would have probably kept quiet, fed it scraps & such - which I probably do now but never see them.

I threw the hindquarters of a deer out a few years ago on a burn pile and it was all gone the next morning!

Does barbed wire or electric fence keep wild animals, cougars included, off people's properties? Will trained guard dogs like German Shepherds protect properties from wild predators that trespass?
 
Does barbed wire or electric fence keep wild animals, cougars included, off people's properties? Will trained guard dogs like German Shepherds protect properties from wild predators that trespass?
You would need to have prison - like fencing to keep animals off your property. Most can get through nearly anything.

I suspect an active, aggressive large dog could keep a cougar at bay - but if it were stalked, or taken by surprise I doubt it would survive.

I had what appeared to be a cub-sized cougar in my shop one night. I went out in the morning and discovered a jug of recycle oil knocked over and these footprints on the hood of one of my Jeeps and several others on the shop floor!

IMG_0707.JPG
 
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Yes it's legal with tags. If you're a property owner and they're attacking your livestock, you do not need a tag. Personal experience dealing with odfw. Though this particular example was a bear eating chickens
 

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