Wow! Great outcome!
Well done RCMP!
Someone please let us know where we send treats to that fabulous lab!

IAM, this is a little bug of mine, but this is a Golden Retriever not a Yellow Labrador Retriever.
Although both beautiful, they are totally different breeds. Having said that,
I too would like to know where we could send some treats to this fabulous "Golden".
Congrats also to the officer for putting down this dangerous cat!

Oh thats the best story ever!

Great story... well done puppy... well done RCMP... they always get their cat!

Awesome story..Amazing out come!! but really flowerchild.. do we really need to knit pick about the dog breed's. It saved it's owners life..

Dogs are amazing creatures that are truly a gift from God.
"Dogs are not our whole life but they make our lives whole."
A wonderful story to start the New Year.

RCMP should have tranquilizer guns for such events. Conservation in this province needs improvement.

The cougar lost its life because it was doing what it does naturally, and somehow some of us believe that it is perfectly alright to murder a wild animal?

It is good that the dog(another animal behaving on instinct)intervened preventing a human death, but it disturbs me that we continually condone the killing of wild animals (cougars, bears, moose, deer etc) when they are found on "human's property".

This is a sad day. Not a happy one.

commoner,

its ok for a cougar to hunt a human, but not ok for a human to hunt a cougar?

Your really going to hate the story posted above.

Message to petuniachild:
yep, I know the difference.......I wasn't paying attention cause I got caught up in the real story. No worries about "little bugs"........

Stompin Tom, perhaps I need to spell it out for you: My opinion is not in regards to HUNTING. The RCMP officer was not engaged in hunting was he? If the officer in question was in fact engaged in hunting, (which clearly he/she was not), that would open up all kinds of other issues that I will not get into.
In my post I clearly stated that my opinion is in regards to CONSERVATION. Let us not confuse the two.

I have a huge problem with murdering animals as a means of conservation. A nice quick easy fix to murder the animal.

As for your assertion that I am "really going to hate the story posted above", is just plain arrogance on your part. I have in fact read the story. Did you? If you have, would you be so kind as to step down from your almighty throne and grace us with your worthy opinion? I am curious as to what your thoughts are on the STORY and how it might relate to my post specifically. As I certainly would never dare to join in sandbox theatrics.

I had a Golden and they are great dogs because you never have to worry about their temperment and I always felt if it came down to it mine would do the same... he stepped between me and a pack of wolves onetime out Miworth and all I had was a stick to yell at them with... he stood his ground letting them know they wouldn't be getting through him to me, but doing it in a non agressive mannor (standing firm, but quiet) or we were both toast... any other dog would have went off the handle and caused even more problems either through fear or over agressive behaviour. People always underestimate the Golden Retriever because they seem so nice, but from my experience they will hold their own if the moment calls for it.

Great story to start the new year with and glad to hear the boy and his dog are alright.

Hey commoner, I have a great idea well go get a hungry cougar and your favorite pet and well give you a tranq and a 9mm. We will let the cougar loose on your favorite little animal and you can shoot it with the tranq. After a really, really long minute of sitting there watching the cat kill your little fluffy pet wondering what you could do to help? You realize, wow I have a gun why the hell did I think a tranq would do anything to save my dog, my cat my son or daughter. I think u have been licking the wrong leaves lately. Give your head a shake

My thoughts exactly SuperDave.

Commoner...would it have been ok for the cat to "murder" the dog? Isn't it always the thing to do in such situations... that is... to prevent murder?

This story has nothing to do with conservation. It is about a dog that did what dogs do...that being...getting the cat!
Whether the young boy was there or not, the dog would have gone for the cat.

PETA refers to fish as Sea Kittens...what do you refer to them as? LOL!

Cougar facts:

Cougar Attacks and Deaths (in Canada)
Number of documented attacks in the last 100 years: 27
Number of documented attacks from 1900-2000: 15
Number of documented deaths from 1900-2000: 7
Number of documented attacks from 2001-2002: 4
Number of documented deaths from 2001-2002: 1

Due to these statistics, one might glumly conclude that cougars have taken a liking to us and that we are the new preferred prey. But according to Linda Sweanor, a cougar biologist at the University of California at Davis, the increased attacks are not necessarily because cougars consider us prey, but are rather due to a burgeoning human population and changes in cougar management.

"After the 1970s, cougar populations were given the chance to rebound, as most western states and Canadian provinces had begun to either manage cougars through hunting seasons or give them full protection," says Sweanor. "The human population in the West also grew by enormous amounts, so the opportunities for cougar-human encounters have increased."

When cougars attack humans, their motive remains a mystery, as humans usually track them down and kill them before they have time to feed or cache. But children are the most vulnerable, perhaps because of their resemblance to cougar prey. "Children are smaller, closer to the size and shape of more natural cougar prey," says Sweanor. "They may more easily attract the attention of a cougar because of their rapid movements and high-pitched voices."

"All in all, cougar attacks remain exceedingly rare events. But in the case of a cougar encounter, one of the worst decisions is to run. Fleeing will trigger their instinct to chase and attack. Pick up all small children and face the cougar and look as large as possible. Open your coat if you are wearing one, and make lots of noise.

"Young, hungry cougars are the wild cards. In the greatest percentage of cases where cougars have attacked people, the cougar was underweight and less than two years of age."
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Magazine/mj04/indepth/default.asp

"Humans have killed cougars throughout history because of the animals’ repeated attacks on vulnerable livestock and occasional attacks on people. Often these attacks occurred when a cougar was weakened by disease, parasites, or injury, making free-ranging or unsupervised livestock the easiest food source available."
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=87

***
It is not normal for this animal to "attack" humans. They are elusive animals. If this cougar was tranquilized it could have been examined by the proper authorities to determine if this cougar is sick. Which would also lead to further investigation. The animal need not have been killed. The animal would have been relocated or euthanized. Instead, this animal was shot three times suffering needlessly. We have civilized ways of handling wildlife and encounters with them. We ought to use those methods.

Obviously, education is lacking on this site.
________
SuperDave, show me your evidence that a tranq gun would not have worked as you claim.

Dragonmaster, it has everything to do with conservation. A cougar was killed. The cougar is a protected species and regulated. There was a wildlife encounter with a human. That definitely falls under the category of CONSERVATION.

I don't see the correlation of what PETA calls fish to this story. Please elaborate so I understand your argument.

A wild animal attacks a boy. The boy's dog protects him. The RCMP shoots the wild animal. The boy and the dog survive. Sounds like a great outcome to me. I sure don't want an animal running around hunting my family. I don't care if that animal is protected, endangered, special, polka-dotted or whatever. My family comes first.

Commoner; Have you ever watched how long it takes a tranquilizer take effect?

"A wild animal attacks a boy."

There was no "attack" in this story. "The dog and cougar were into a fight..."

Commoner, I understand that you really don't like the fact that the cougar was killed. I don't like to see wild animals killed either. The fact of the matter is, the cougar was going for the boy.

If you carefully reread the article again, you will see that "A cougar charged across the yard, closing the distance between itself and the boy. That’s when the boy’s golden retriever stepped in between the boy and the big cat, and engaged the cougar." The cougar was heading at the boy, the dog stepped in. So, because the boy was not actually touched by the cougar, we can't say that he was attacked? Hmmm...That's quite an interesting argument. I'm glad that the dog didn't sit there and wait to see if the cougar was just going to run over and play with the boy or purr and ask for a nice tummy-rub. The dog seemed to have a good understanding that his owner/companion was in danger and did what he could to protect him.

In your other post, you seem to state that a more educated person would not have killed the animal and would have relocated it. Assuming that a tranquillizer gun with an instant-acting tranquillizer was available at the moment of the attack, a more educated person could have stopped the dog from being mauled, figured out why they cougar did what it did, helped the cougar see the error of its ways and sent it out certain that it would never again attack a human? I couldn't do it. I guess that I am not nearly as smart as I thought I was.

Now that I think about it, perhaps better educated people running the court system would be able to stop crime before it happened, cause the would-be criminals to think about their negative influence on society and then relocate those folks somewhere knowing that they would never even think about reoffending. Nope, that wouldn't work because since the crime never actually happened...

Sorry, didn't mean to get off the topic.

My bad!!

Commoner

Easy to post stats, but what’s your point in doing so? What Cougars do or do not do is not the subject here. Are we not discussing the “murder” of a Cougar?

You wrote...“If this cougar was tranquilized it could have been examined by the proper authorities to determine if this cougar is sick.”
Why would you tranq a Cougar to determine if it is sick if it hasn’t attacked a human?

You wrote...” The animal need not have been killed. The animal would have been relocated or euthanized. Instead, this animal was shot three times suffering needlessly.”
Pardon me, but isn’t killed and euthanized the same thing? Sounds a bit confusing.

Sorry, but whether it is a Cougar, Coyote, Moose or a Mouse, if I came across either trying to kill my Dog, I wouldn’t be looking for a tranq gun.

You wrote...“ Dragonmaster, it has everything to do with conservation. A cougar was killed. The cougar is a protected species and regulated. There was a wildlife encounter with a human. That definitely falls under the category of CONSERVATION.”
Sorry, this was a Cougar encounter with a Dog; the Cougar attacked and was trying to kill and probably going to eat the Dog. Before the Cougar succeeded in doing so, the cop euthanized the Cougar. Or was it murder?
Again, wildlife conservation has nothing to do with this story.

You write...“I don't see the correlation of what PETA calls fish to this story. Please elaborate so I understand your argument.”
It’s like this Commoner...PETA, (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) or as some prefer to say, (People Eating Tasty Animals) and yourself, use the same type of vocabulary when referring to animals and what happens to them.
Such as when you wrote...” I have a huge problem with murdering animals as a means of conservation. A nice quick easy fix to murder the animal.”
You clearly have the same mentality as any member of PETA I have ever talked to or read the writings of.
===========================================


Eagleone

There has never been a documented case of a human ever being attacked by a wolf or a whole pack of wolves for that matter. If you really sleep better at night thinking your Golden staved off an attack by a pack of Wolves simply by just standing there and looking tough, then I have a parcel of land for sale!
You must tell us how you yell at a pack of Wolves with a stick, sounds interesting. Thanks for the laugh I needed that today.

I'm confused as to how someone(commoner)that seems somewhat educated, thinks that a tranquilizer is a viable solution to this. Sure you could put a fast acting tranq in every police car, hell you can give one to every home owner that lives in a rural community. They won't use them! why? because when your talking about seconds between the life or death of your children your going to grab your gun. The tranq will probably take 20-30 sec to slow the cat down are you willing to take that chance? I'm not!

Wildlife Act states:
78 A person commits an offence if the person causes or allows a dog to hunt or pursue

(a) wildlife or an endangered species or threatened species, or

(b) game, except in accordance with the regulations.

Destruction of animals
79 (1) An officer may kill an animal, other than a domestic animal, that is at large and is likely to harm persons, property, wildlife or wildlife habitat.

***

Education info:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/cos/info/wildlife_human_interaction/docs/conflicts_policy.html

The story clearly states the dog attacked the cougar (or for the benefit of the rest of you, "defended" its territory.
It is a stretch to conclude that property or person was in any danger. Clearly from my vantage point it was the DOG that was being protected when the officer shot and killed the cougar.

Also, upon further reading, I have discovered that the cougar is currently listed as CR5 and therefore IS in fact a low conservation priority. I would like to see the MOE update its information and research to see if that is STILL a valid classification.

For those who wish to hunt cougar in BC it is hunting season.

Here is the link for the hunting regulations for Region 3 (Boston Bar area).

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlife/hunting/regulations/0910/docs/region_3.pdf

Most areas allow a bag limit of 2.

In BC you can hunt Cougar with the aid of Dogs!

LOL, the dog attacked the Cougar?

In summary:

1) IF cougars in BC are IN FACT hunting human prey the MOE needs to investigate and RESOLVE the problem;

2) In my opinion, this particular event was about protecting a dog;

3) The public needs to be educated about wildlife, even the MOE concurs with that on their website. Perhaps the MOE needs to do a better job on that;

4) In my opinion, too many wildlife are being killed instead of MANAGED;

5) Hunting and conservation are integral parts of our ecosystem and need to be effective to protect the natural environment AND the public from dangerous wildlife. However, knee-jerk reactions, fear and ignorance are interfering with EFFECTIVE management.

Questions that arise for me:

1. Is a domestic animal's life more valuable than a wild animal's? I hope they would be given the same weight, that is why I advocate life-preserving measures while protecting property or person. (Just as the RCMP use the taser instead of their sidearm - because it is deemed a NON-LETHAL method of protection.)

2. Is the cougar population out of control?

3. Are the cougars losing their natural source of prey? If they are, why?

4. What is the MOE doing in regards to the cougar/human conflicts today? Are they doing anything different? If not, is it perhaps because the public has a heightened awareness of cougars due to the media and there really is no threat?

5. Why is there no current data available? The most current data is 7+ years old. Some of the information is more that 10+ years old.

Sorry typo. Question 5 should read:

5. Why is there no current data available? The most current data is 7+ years old. Some of the information is more than 10+ years old.

One final point:

The RCMP officer that shot this cougar requires training in killing wildlife. Any hunter knows you don't shoot an animal in the hind end. Reminds me of the time an RCMP officer used a shotgun in an attempt to kill a moose by shooting its nose. Fortunately, a CORE instructor was on hand and advised the officer to use his sidearm instead and aim for VITAL organs. If the RCMP are expected by the MOE to deal with these issues they need proper training.

I think you've made your point. Let the wild animals run wild whereever they want to, killing whatever they want to without fear of reprisal. Noone should even consider injuring one of those creatures that deserves to live more than anything that is domesticated. Anyone that tries to say otherwise is not educated enough to understand the situation.

I give up. When I hear about the next wild animal attack on a human, I will immediately put the blame on something other than the animal. It must be the victim. Hey...This sounds like a good defence to use in court. "Sure I mugged him, but it wasn't my fault."

Now your making up stories! come on. the dog did not attack the cougar, and it was not defending its territory, it was protecting a child

"A cougar charged across the yard, closing the distance between itself and the boy. That’s when the boy’s golden retriever stepped in between the boy and the big cat, and engaged the cougar. "

The RCMP officer heard the dog crying from under the porch and could see the cougars back end. How does the RCMP officer know if their is not another child under the porch. He shot at the target that presented itself and when he had the opportunity used a kill shot.

Your arguements crack me up. Im almost confused if your reading the same story that is on the top of this page?

Well I'm going to go get my dogs and drive to quesnel and track down and kill a cougar! Then im going to stuff it and hang it on my wall! Just because I can!