Local man rehabilitates, shelters cougars
j Cougar Prevention
Resources cares for
cats until they can be
transferred to zoos,
wildlife parks
By Meg Dedolph
OtGQCn OilJy ErmraK!
Rav Sehring likes cats
Some are small • blank and
brown tabbies that slink through
the tall grass and brambles at Ins
rural Uine County home
Hut nine are larger, nearly
eight feet long from nose to tail,
and combiner!, eat 2.200 pounds
of nn\ meat each month
The larger r ats are cougars,
which are often mistreated at
human hands, either bred for
the pet market and kept in cap
tivity by unethical breeders, or
hunted bv ranchers who fear the
i ats are eating their livestock.
Sehring does neither; instead,
he has spent nearly five years
rehabilitating and sheltering
cougars until they can be trans
ferred to zoos or wildlife parks.
His rural Lane County farm is
the home of Cougar Preservation
Resources, which includes a
12.000-square-foot chain-link
cage with nine surrounding
cages that open onto the big
cage.
There is also a smaller build
ing Sehring uses as a nature ( en
ter. with exhibits and films he
shows to visiting groups
The cats each live in their
own cage, sleeping and shelter
ing themselves from the weather
in a wooden den box.
Each cougar gets time alone
each day in the large cage to
exercise and play with toys,
including howling pins and bas
ketballs.
"They'd fight if they were all
in the same place at the same
time." Sebring said. "1 wouldn't
want to find out what they'd
do."
liven separated in their own
cages, it's clear each cat has a
distinct personality and set of
idiosyncrasies.
"Tawni's the queen," Sebring
said. "She'll go out of her cage
and go yell at everybody, espe
cially Levi and Kayaka.”
Another cat. Czar, prefers
women.
"He doesn't like men,"
Sebring said, "but if a woman
calls him (into his cage), he'll go
right in."
Czar was raised by another
cougar rehabilitator in Washing
ton and moved to Sebring's
facility when a Washington
home could not be found for
him.
Czar was used to being
brushed by his former handler
and now refuses to groom his
own neck, so Sebring is waiting
for him to "adopt" one of the
CI’R volunteers who can brush
him.
Besides working with animals
that may have been mistreated.
Sebring also works to educate
people about cougars and cougar
preservation.
Each of the cats is part of a 45
to 60-minute tour of the facility
that Sebring gives to visiting
groups, including Girl Scouts
and Boy Scouts, and he and
Tawni make presentations at
schools and in front of groups
from Portland to Eugene.
■. ———* --uih<Am tmirtmiT
Musashl, a three-year-old mala, born In a too In Granby Canada, recovering from a recent Illness peers out
ot his den. Because ot his dependency on humans, he will probably be captive tor life
Occasionally. Sobring finds
himself investigating reports of
livestock killings where cougars
are suspected. He said the cats
are usually not responsible;
rather, dogs often are. and in
some cases, the ranchers' own
dogs.
There is on extra incentive for
livestock owners if they can
prove their animals were killed
by a cougar because a tax credit
is given for livestock killed by
game animals.
"Whenever someone starts
complaining about a cougar eat
ing their livestock, it's like a dis
ease," Sebring said. "Every ani
mal that comes up lame or dies
is blamed on a cougar."
In some cases, when a cougar
is blamed for killing livestock
and is shot, orphaned cubs are
left behind. In 1991, near Dex
ter. a mother cougar and one of
her cubs was shot, leaving
behind Kayaka. now a two-year
old at CPR.
After hearing there might be
an abandoned cub in the woods.
Sebring searched for Kayaka for
nearly a week without success
The cub, near death from
dehydration, was finally found
when "a friend went out and
used Iter feminine charm to
schmooze file guy who shot the
kitten's mom," Sebring said
Sehring is also working to ban
the use of dogs to hunt cougars,
as Kayaka's mother was hunted
"If you could eliminate hounil
hunting in Oregon, you could
eliminate a lot of cruelty to nni
mals, " Sebring saiit. “A guy sits
in his pickup with a beer or
whatever, there's a monitor that
shows where the dogs are. tie
sees the dogs’ heads go up.
knows they've got the cougar up
a tree, goes out and shoots it
There's nothing sportsmanlike
about that."
In order to do this, animal
conservationists formed the Ore
gon Bear and Cougar Coalition,
an organization dedicated to
bantling both hound hunting
and bear baiting in Oregon.
Jennifer Sachs. Sebring's
office manager, said the coali
tion is seeking volunteers to
help collect the 67,000 signa
tures needed by July to put the
measure on the November 1904
ballot.
ANTHONY FOUNT > I:mar«»
Ray Sabring aharaa a landar
momant with ona of hla cougars.
Volunteers are a mainstay at
CPR. because money is often a
problem for Sebring ami Ins
cat*.
Sabring recently sold his
house in Eugene's south hills to
buy const ruction materials for a
new enclosure he is building,
but the money from that sale is
nearly gone.
"I'm going on faith." Sebring
said.
Magazine articles in Seven
trrn .md .Vorf/mrsf Parks and
Wlldtifr brought m some
inquiries .is wi* 11 ;is some mon
ey. anil ( 1’K volunteers have
canvassed door-to-door mid
solicited memberships
Kven though much of
Sobring’s volunteer JtrojiH Is ( .ill
for largo groups, thero is some
work lor individuals
Christine Ms aits, a itiuior in
env ironiiirnta! studies mujor at
the University. started volun
teering \s ■ th Sebring two or
three weeks ago alter one of her
professors invited Sebring and
l aw in to bis ( lass
I vans said she's alw-avs been
interested in autinal preserva
tion and is glad Sebring puls so
nun It effort into edut atiou
” Ihey re all great animals ."
she said being around them
and at tuallv seeing them is so
different from reading a passing
artu le "
I v ails said she trusts the .mi
mals and isn't afraid of them,
even though her aunt ( autioned
her to "be i .ireful'' in a phone
< onversation the two of them
had recently
I'd much rather have some
thing happen to me in that < ir
(:u in stain e than walking in ross
the street." she said Hites and
si rati lies are |usi part of the
jolt."
In perhaps the largest joti at
( PR to date Sebring is building
a I i ai re enclosure, designed to
represent a cougar's natural
habitat as i losefv as possible
t )ik e finished, the cage w ill
be used for rehabilitation pur
poses. to teat h ( ougars how to
hunt and surv ive in the w iId
again Most id the cats Sebring
handles have become so at cos
tumed to humans they could not
live on their ovvu again
When the ( age is finished,
.Sebring plans to build a water
fall feeding into the natural
pond and slot k the area with
fish and jut k rabbits to give the
cougars hunting pra< lire f allen
trees that hang over the pond
w ill give the ( ougars a plat e to
i limb
Right now. tin- cage is only
outlined t>\ metal polos driven
into tlio ground .it regular inter
vals Most ot thr him kberry
bushes that crawled across tint
ground have Intuit cut of!
because tlio c.its i annul negoti
ati! hlai kberry vinos very wall.
A group ol -!li students from
Lewis and Clark College helped
set the poles into the ground,
and Sohring is hoping to interest
a fraternity, sorority or some
other i lull in helping with the
( age's i onstriu lion
Sohring said the animals
selected to he pari of the releast!
program will have no human
contact at all. the buildings and
other cougar cages will not he
visible from the large cage, and
outside noises, like those Irom
cars, will he minimized.
"Release programs need a
large natural environment and
no human contact to he success
ful," Sohring said.
Hut until the cage is complet
ed so cougars can learn to hunt
and eventually return to the
wild. Sohring will probably con
tinue working odd i (instruction
jobs to help keep his cats fed
and happy until they move on to
another home.
"These cots are like my chil
dren." Sohring said. "I cry
whenever any one of them
leaves."