Sean C. Morgan
Northside Drive resident forced to put animal down on Northside Drive
A cougar attacked a horse off Northside Drive Sunday morning in broad daylight, severely wounding the horse, which had to be put down.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Specialist and trapper Jim Schacht said he believes that the cougar probably startled the horse, which panicked and ran, triggering the cat’s instinct to chase and attack.
Owner Robert Day said he was keeping the horse near his house, in the 1000 block of Northside Drive, where he was feeding it to get it back into shape. The horse, which stood at 17 hands, had been ill and weighed about 950 pounds. Day said it needed to weigh about 200 pounds more, so he wanted to control its feed.
He also keeps three miniature horses, a Shetland pony, two larger horses and a llama in a field behind his house, in the 1000 block of Northside Drive. They were unharmed.
Day had fed the horse, a paint named “Cash,” at about 10 a.m., he said. “I came out and fed him and then went back inside and was watching football games.”
About 30 minutes later, Day and his wife, Jan, went outside, about the same time their neighbor was yelling that Cash was in his yard.
Day found the horse in his neighbor’s yard wounded and bleeding, he said. The horse had claw marks on the left flank and lower right leg, where the cat may have grabbed at the horse with both paws. The horse did not have any bite marks.
The claw marks were wider than Day’s hand, he said, and a veterinarian said they must have been caused by a large cat.
The horse had run behind a nearby building and crossed a fence and stone wall, nearly severing a front leg, to reach the neighbor’s yard.
“He was still alive, so we put him down and buried him,” Day said. He took photos of the horse and sent them to a veterinary surgeon at Oregon State University, but the cost of surgery was high and the chances of success were low.
“We’re nervous. I’ve got three little tiny horses,” Day said, adding that he’s got two granddaughters who have been staying with him.
Day said he has lived there for the past eight to nine years, and had never seen any cougars or signs that one was in the area, he said. “Every once in awhile, we’d see a fox or a raccoon.”
The area has a lot of deer, and this year, they’re especially thick, he said. He doesn’t usually see bucks, but he’s been seeing a lot of them this year too.
Schacht said it was unusual for a cougar to attack a horse, but he has seen it before.
The cougars will go where the deer and water are this time of year, he said.
“I found a coyote track, but that’s about it,” Schacht said after walking the property, but he didn’t expect to find tracks this time of year. He did find a tiny tuft of cougar belly fur on a barbed wire fence.
“There’s not much I can really do because of all the houses (with pets and children),” Schacht said. “It’s a pretty tough situation. All I can say here is keep your rifle handy, but you’ve got to be careful where you shoot. He could jump in (from) anywhere.”
Schacht said he didn’t know what this cougar might do. They’re unpredictable. If they have a kill, they will often return to it and can be trapped. In this case, he doesn’t know whether the cougar will return for the horse.
Day said there had been two recent sightings in the area, one near Pleasant Valley School.
Inside the city limits, two sightings have been reported recently, one on Main Street near the old Sweet Home Ranger District office and two were spotted on the rodeo grounds, 4000 block of Main.
Day got his first horse three years ago. He promised his granddaughter, who lived in Arizona with her parents, that if she could convince her parents to move back and he’d buy her one. They moved back, and he followed through. He has since gotten horses for his other granddaughters, while his grandsons have received racing go-carts, he said.