Host Stephanie Potter interviews Jayne Miller, rancher and head of the Oregon Cougar Action Team, about two bills currently being discussed in the Oregon Legislature that would relax the ban on using hound dogs to kill cougar. In 1994 Oregon passed Ballot Measure 18 which bans hunting bears with bait or cougars with dogs.
Now two cougar-related bills before the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. House Bill 2624 would exempt counties from the statewide prohibition on using dogs to hunt cougars and black bears, if county voters approve. It also would allow the use of bait to hunt bears.
House Bill 3395 would require the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to design a pilot program that would allow hunters to use dogs to track down and tree cougars. Counties could opt in.
- KBOO