PHILOMATH, Ore. (AP) -- A Benton County man says a neighbor has shot and killed a young cougar prowling around poultry pens.
Reed Glasmann told the Corvallis Gazette-Times Friday the animal was on his property the evening before when Shane Mooney shot it.
Glasmann said Mooney was going to feed his ducks, geese and swans when he startled the animal. He says Mooney took his young son to the house, got a rifle and killed the cougar.
Last fall, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimated, 5,700 cougars roamed the state, and sightings are on the rise in the mid-Willamette Valley.
Five sheep have been lost to predation at a Linn County farm where six cougars have been shot or trapped.
Glasmann told KGW that the cougar, a young female, was about the size of a labrador retriever, but "big enough that it could've taken out one of my grandkids."
Glasmann said he was told the cougar exhibited no fear. It looked hungry, he said, and the birds "were an easy meal ticket."
This was the third cougar sighting in about five years on his 80-acre property in the foothills of the Coast Range. This was the first time one has come so close to the house.
There's a black bear that also roams the acreage, Glasmann said, but he's much less afraid of it because the bear actually hides from people.
Children are not allowed to play in the yard without adult supervision, he said. He routinely carries a handgun, especially when he's with children. He was once charged at by two coyotes and Glasmann thinks they had eyes on the kids.
“I’m more afraid of the coyotes than the cougars," he said.
In this photo courtesy of Bennett Hall of the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Glasmann kneels by a cougar shot on his property south of Philomath.
