Stevens County Sheriff Brad Manke testified this week against a bill that would prevent his wildlife specialist from using hounds to hunt cougars, black bears or bobcats without prior authorization from state wildlife managers.
Manke told the House Rural Development Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee that wildlife officials were frequently unavailable due to understaffing and his office often needed to move quickly to ward off attacks on livestock, pets or humans.
“It’s any sheriff’s primary responsibility to protect lives and property,” he said. “Removing a county’s ability to utilize hounds will be in direct conflict with that mission.”
The House is considering Senate Bill 5613, which was approved by that chamber and removes the word “county” from an earlier version of the legislation. The removal of that word means a sheriff’s office must gain permission from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife before using hounds to pursue any of the three predators.
“Stevens County and the Northeast region of Washington has, arguably, the highest rate of depredation in the state, especially cougars preying on small livestock and pets,” testified Manke on Wednesday. “This is a tool that we utilize more often than we want, but it is essential for public safety.”
Manke said his wildlife specialist, Jeff Flood, works closely with Fish and Wildlife, but it is often days before calls about a problem cougar were returned due to a manpower shortage in the state agency.
“There are a lot of times when the department is not available, and we need to take action,” he said.
He said direct threats to humans from cougars are rare, but they do happen, mostly when people are hiking or otherwise spending time in remote areas of Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.
Manke said, as cougar populations grow in Washington due to longstanding bans on the use of traps and hounds for hunting, it is becoming more common for cougars to loiter around yards or hunt domestic animals.
“As recent as yesterday on Flat Creek Road, the property owner had doorbell cameras that showed two cougars walking around in a covered entry way like they didn’t have a care in the world,” said Manke on Thursday in a follow-up interview. “The people were not home at the time but that entry way is where they like to sit to have coffee.”
He said there is some type of cougar event weekly in Stevens County.
“We have numerous accounts of goats and small animals being killed,” he said. “Cougars really seem to like goats. They will jump in a goat pen and jump out over a six-foot fence carrying the goat with them.”
Flood was an expert hound handler, said Manke, who was often first on the scene of an incident and ready to initiate a hunt. By the time that Fish and Wildlife got involved, he said days could have passed so the problem predator was unable to located.
He said there were rarely problems from black bears and bobcats, but he also wanted the ability to deal with any potential threats from those species.
Seated on the House committee to hear testimony from Manke and others was Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, who represents the 7th Legislative District in Northeast Washington.
Kretz is a rancher who has dealt with 38 attacks on his horses and domestic dogs.
He told his peers that it took years to get a workable plan in place to deal with conflicts, especially in remote outposts where it can take an hour or more for law enforcement to arrive. He agreed with Manke that Fish and Wildlife often couldn’t be reached for days about a problem.
Sponsors of SB 5613 say taking the authority for hunts away from counties is necessary due to the actions of Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer.
In 2019, Songer established a posse to mount hunts against problem cougars in the area. He said that action was necessary because the state was not managing wildlife to protect people and domestic animals.
Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, told the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources and Parks Committee that he sponsored SB 5613 to take hound hunts out of the hands of sheriffs because of Songer’s actions
“I’ll be totally honest, this is about Klickitat County and Sheriff Songer potentially doing some more sporting hunts using dogs than hunting down what the state or feds would consider dangerous cougars,” Van De Wege told the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources and Parks Committee.
In every other county in the state, Van De Wege said, sheriff’s departments work with Fish and Wildlife before using hounds to hunt cougars.
Kretz suggested that instead of passing a bill that might cause more harm than it did good, state officials should spend time trying to figure out if Songer’s frustrations are valid, and, if they are, fix them.
Manke said passing a bill that tied the hands of every county because of the actions of one was unfair.
“I liken this bill to a parent who has 39 children and spanks them all when one has stepped over the line,” he said.
Manke said Songer had gotten the message from his peers and legislators, so there were unlikely to be further problems.
“I would highly encourage that this bill no longer move forward, I believe it is no longer necessary,” he said.
