KGW talked to the man and he insisted he had no other choice than to kill the big cats. The man said both cougars were not afraid of him at all.
He fired two warning shots to try to scare one off, but it didn’t go anywhere. Then, minutes later, he noticed a second cougar who wasn’t backing down either.
Around midnight Monday night, the two big cats were found on the property where Dave Callister lives in Corbett.
Neighbors in the area said chickens have gone missing over the last few weeks. There is a chicken coup on the property, so Dave thought that’s maybe why the two cougars were hanging around. He had a close call with them in the dark last night. “Walkin’ by my truck and I almost stepped on the tail of the one and, being curious, I looked under the truck and found myself nose to nose with this one,” Dave explained, “yelled at him and he hissed at me and I realized he wasn’t going anywhere.”
Dave fired two warning shots, but when neither cougar ran away. He felt like he had no choice but to shoot and kill both of them.
He said there are kids who live on the property and he didn’t feel safe with how comfortable the cougars seemed to be with people
Oregon Fish and Wildlife said it is legal to kill cougars that are threatening agriculture or people.
Dave will have to bring the dead cougars to Fish and Wildlife within ten days so they can evaluate them and learn more about the cougar population in the area.
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