Cougar stalking Waldo
From our weekly issue dated May 13, 2009
A Waldo Road family wants to warn residents of a possible cougar on the prowl in the Indian Hill Ranch area.
Marissa Northrup said that on the weekend of April 26, her family’s two Barbados sheep were attacked by another animal.
The family thought it might have been one of their dogs, so Northrup’s husband phoned the Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife for an expert opinion. A cougar then became the likely suspect.
“We described the wounds to a sheep biologist, and he said it sounded like a classic case,” Northrup said.
Further adding to the family’s suspicion of a cougar is the fact that they found droppings on a recent hike.
“That was the first hint we had,” she said.
The Northrups bought a 350-pound Hampshire sheep earlier this month. But on Sunday, May 3, they found it with puncture wounds and lacerations.
“We got him on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday afternoon, after we came back from church, he was in the field,” Northrup said.
The sheep was alive and still breathing, but had been partly eaten by what attacked it, she said.
“It ate through the ribs and ate the heart out,” Northrup said.
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Other aspects of the attacks make the family believe that a cougar must have been involved. For example, they only occur when the family isn’t present.
“It knew, obviously, that there was a sheep there, so it must have been lying in wait,” she said. “Our theory is that it was just hanging around, unfortunately.”
Northrup said that her family has decided against getting any more sheep until the suspected cougar is either caught or killed. They also have posted flyers at stores to warn others, as cougars have a 40-mile roaming radius.
“It’s not too heavily populated out this way, but there are people with livestock and kids,” Northrup said. “I would hate to have something happen and have it be preventable.”
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