MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A proposed bill to reintroduce some hunting of cougars with hounds has died in the Oregon Senate after getting an easy nod in the House.
The Mail Tribune reports the House sent the proposal to the Senate on a 45-14 vote last month but a Senate committee did not schedule it for debate, effectively killing a bill without discussing it.
It was the farthest point that hound hunting advocates have pushed a bill in the Oregon Legislature since voters twice rejected the practice for bears and cougars in the mid-1990s.
State figures show that most cougars now shot by hunters are targets of opportunity — killed while the hunters were pursuing other species, primarily deer or elk.
