SEQUIM — An officer from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday shot and killed a cougar that had some residents along the Dungeness River on edge for months.
Officer Paul Mosman said a family walking near River’s End Road southwest of Sequim spotted the cougar at about 7:30 p.m.
He said he received a call alerting him to the cougar’s presence and summoned a houndsman, who arrived in the area within 15 minutes.
The houndsman’s dog tracked the cougar’s scent and treed the 80-pound female cat near the Dungeness Fish Hatchery, about a mile from a residential area.
Mosman arrived at 8:30 p.m. and killed the cougar with a single gunshot to its spinal column.
It died instantly, he said.
Law enforcement and Fish and Wildlife agents had received numerous reports of cougar sightings in that area, including a close call in January for two teenage girls who were forced to jump into the waters of the Dungeness River to escape a cougar they said was following them.
Though cougars’ natural habitat overlaps remote Clallam County areas and game agents try to assure residents that they are safe from the animals, Mosman said sometimes the cats have to be dealt with.
“I don’t like to shoot them, but when a cat shows aggressive tendencies, you’ve got to do that,” he said.
“You just have to take that step if it is showing interest in humans as a potential prey source. It’s the best course.”
Mosman said the cougar was young, possibly between 1 and 2 years old.
Its remains were sent to a state biologist’s laboratory for routine examination and testing.
