COYLE — An attempt to lure a cougar thought to be roaming the Toandos Peninsula on Wednesday night did not work, but owners of livestock killed by a cougar say they won’t give up.
“We will not stop looking until we get this cougar taken care of,” said Mark Stratton, who has lost three alpacas and a goat to cougar attacks at his home at 214 Gien Drive.
Mark Stratton and his wife, Aly, had left the two carcasses of alpacas believed to have been killed by a large cougar early Wednesday out in their corral that night.
They had hoped the bait would draw the cougar so that they could immediately report the sighting to Sgt. Phil Henry, state Fish and Wildlife Department agent.
Henry has said that an immediate report of a kill or sighting helps him find the animal that made the kill.
The Strattons were disappointed, never spotting a cougar, but said they had heard another, unconfirmed, report of an animal killed.
Rumors of slain goat
“It didn’t come back last night, but we have heard that somebody up the road had a goat that was taken down last night,” Mark Stratton said Thursday.
That report could not be confirmed with Henry, who was unavailable for comment Thursday.
Henry has said that he suspects a large cougar, perhaps 70 pounds or more, is running up and down the Toandos Peninsula, killing domestic animals.
Mark Stratton said he had no choice but to dispose of the carcasses of the alpacas on Thursday, because they were no longer in a state that would attract a cougar.
After losing their animals, the Strattons are taking precautions, placing their baby goats in a horse trailer at night.
Two alpacas were found dead Wednesday morning, a half-hour after Mark Stratton checked on them around 8 a.m. Another alpaca had been killed the night before. A goat was killed earlier this month.
Henry said Wednesday that he and a dog tracker hunted the cougar for more than three hours that day, with no success.
Dry, warmer weather conditions, which cause an animal’s scent to evaporate quickly, made it nearly impossible to track the animal, he said.
If it were found, it would likely be destroyed, he said.
Three miniature horses and a number of turkeys have been reported killed on the Toandos Peninsula in the last few weeks.
Henry said he could not confirm whether they were cougar kills.
Henry has been tracking and disposing of cougars that kill domestic animals and threaten humans for more than 20 years in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
He has tracked the big cats between four and five times this year around the North Olympic Peninsula.
His response on Wednesday was slowed because of Coyle’s remoteness, he said. While Henry is based in Port Townsend, more than 40 miles from Coyle — which is some 60 miles from Port Angeles — the houndsman lives in Shelton.
Because he is often out in the field and cannot take reports, Henry said all cougar or other wildlife-related attacks on domestic animals should be immediately reported to the State Patrol by phoning 360-478-4646 or 9-1-1. State Patrol alerts Fish and Wildlife.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
