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Dear Claire,
Washington’s cougars need your help once more. Last month, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission failed to move forward on a rule to curb the exploitation of Washington’s cougars. Now we are down to the wire. On April 19, the Commission will have one more chance to advance the rule in time for it to take effect by next fall’s season.
Please take action now to urge Commissioners to do the right thing for Washington's cougars. Please register today to speak to the Commissioners on April 19, use our simple portal to write to the Commission by April 18, and help us with the funds necessary to support this ongoing battle.
There is no good reason for the Commission to delay action for another year. We gave it all the facts it needed in a detailed 73-page rulemaking petition last fall, which was supported by a letter signed by 50 scientists from across the nation. Our petition was founded on decades of work by biologists from the Washington Department of Wildlife, and even the Department’s game division leader was forced to admit that he agreed with most of what we had to say.
Our case was bolstered at last month’s meeting, when Department biologists confirmed the scientific foundation for prior limits on cougar hunting. Decades of research shows that when cougar mortality exceeds the population growth rate of about 13%. it exponentially increases the threat to the health and stability of the cougar population—and foremost cougar experts warn that it may also put people at risk by making cougar-human conflicts more likely.
Despite this scientific consensus, the Commission and Department have sat by and done nothing for years, as cougar mortality has soared beyond safe and sustainable levels in significant parts of the state. For example, over the past three years, hunters and management authorities have killed over a third of the estimated cougar population in the management units that include Stevens and Klickitat counties—with mortality in some areas reaching a shocking 50%.
The Commission agreed this must stop when it voted 7-to-2 last December to accept our petition and begin rulemaking. But now, Department managers are urging Commissioners to allow at least one more year of overhunting, while out-of-state hunting groups are flooding their email boxes with demands to kill more cougars than the population can sustain.
We need you to remind Commissioners that you care, and that you are watching to ensure that they fulfill their mandate to “preserve, protect, and perpetuate” Washington's wildlife.
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