CASHMERE — A cougar is suspected of killing one dog and injuring another in attacks in Brender Canyon over the past three days.
Hounds were out Tuesday morning, looking for the cougar, said Sgt. Dan Klump with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
He asks residents to be aware of cougar activity in the area and to turn on a light and make noise when they let their animals outside. People should also consider going outside with their animals.
The dog that was killed belonged to Jeff Paton. He said he found his aging dog, Zeus, a 105-pound yellow lab, dead and mostly eaten in his orchard in Brender Canyon on Saturday. Paton’s dog, which often roamed the neighborhood, was likely killed a day or two earlier, he said.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife set a live trap in his orchard near the mouth of the canyon and installed two wildlife cameras in case the animal came back to the kill site.
About 300 yards west of where Paton’s dog was found, another dog was attacked Monday night, Klump said. The homeowner, whose name was not available, let his dog out, heard yelping and growling and saw a cougar attacking his dog. The man went outside with a shotgun and fired one shot.
“The dog and the cougar went running down the orchard,” Klump said. “We believe he hit the cougar but the one round he had was bird shot and, at that distance, if anything, it probably put 100 bee stings on it, not enough to euthanize the animal.”
The dog, a black mixed breed that weighs about 50 pounds, came home about 20 minutes later with puncture marks on its head and neck. The dog was taken to a veterinarian and was expected to survive, Klump said.
Paton said there have been four cougar sightings on his orchard in the last year. After his dog was killed, wildlife officials brought in hounds to track the cougar but were not able to find it, Klump said.
Initially, officials were not sure if a cougar had killed Paton’s dog because no cougar had been sighted. Klump said a cougar kill appears obvious after the second attack.
