Plan B Forum

I was walking around the neighborhood and noticed that there are very few cats out running around loose, many fewer than there were 16 years ago in Portland Ore. So I was wondering what was up? Do fewer people keep cats? Are more of them being kept indoors? Or is it the cougars* (no, the animal kind) and coyotes keeping the numbers down and the remainder in hiding?

Is there some way of tracking this?


yrs,
rubato


* There have been a number of cougar sightings in recent weeks in this area, 1 was two houses up the street where a cougar killed a deer at the end of a long driveway, another was a little further where a householder filmed a male cougar in her yard and still another was a female darted and then relocated.

The other question I have about the cougars is; it is inevitable that the number of human-cougar interactions will continue to increase since we have outlawed any form of population control how many children or dogs will be killed before we re-authorize hunting as a form of population control?

Just curious.


yrs,
rubato

Well, I'm against hunting children and dogs but it wouldn't surprise me if President Trump didn't initiate such a program.

I am guessing an "all of the above" answer. Cougars, indoors cats and lets not forget any kind of catch/neuter/release of feral/strays that has been popular (at least around here) may have helped lower the numbers.

New Jersey has opened up a black bear hunt as human encroachment has upped human-bear interactions. Haven't heard of any deaths of people, but it's only a matter of time.

I recall reading the paper a while back that only 60 people have been killed by black bears in the last 100 years. I don't think they are particularly aggressive.

We have had them several times in my neighborhood (and I keep motion detectors on the front and back yards for that), and I have had them in my backyard a couple of times in the last 5 years, but they did not appear to be particularly aggressive (although I wouldn't let the dog out).

I hate it when there's people in my yard so I'd let the dogs out

But they're dead--what could your dogs do?

Eat them, of course. As you noted, they are not particularly aggressive, being dead n'all

By the way, you could build a fence to keep out bears but I suppose there's always the risk you might lose a leg

Nah--I always leave a pic-a-nic basket out for them. The dead/undead don't seem to want those--just the bears.

And I'm gonna make those bears pay for that fence!

Because today's the day the Teddy Bears have their pic-a-nic.