Cougar scares Valsayn residents
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,134556.htmlBy RHONDOR DOWLAT Monday, January 24 2011
Valsayn South residents are up in arms over a large cat — a cougar, being housed at the home of a private citizen in the upscale residential area. Some residents said they fear for the lives of their children, senior citizens, pets and themselves.
Upon inquiries Newsday was told that the cougar was legally imported into the country to be part of an exhibit for an animal education programme and not for personal reasons.
However, a petition letter was sent to the Minister of the Environment Dr Roodal Moonilal, informing him of the existence of the wild cat. The letter stated that the animal is housed at a private residence at Parima Road, South Valsayn —
the wildlife permit’s owner was issued in the name of a relative of a former government minister under the PNM administration.Former Minister of the Environment (2000-2001) Adesh Nanan, who is currently a director of Animals for Education yesterday confirmed that the cougar was being housed in Valsayn but claimed that it was “only temporary”. Nanan assured that the wild cat would soon be moved to a “special” facility off the Maracas/St Joseph Road, “it is being temporarily housed in Valsayn but it will soon be moved to a special facility where there are cages built to special requirements. That facility is also very secure and built especially to facilitate wild and dangerous animals like the cougar”.
When asked for what purpose the cougar was imported, Nanan replied, “It will be part of our animal education programme where we will be taking it around to schools throughout the country. This drive will be to bring awareness to children the importance of preserving animals like the cougar, tigers, iguanas, monkeys, ocelots and exotic snakes, for example the boa constrictors. We have to bring awareness that the poaching of these animals is wrong”.
Nanan also revealed that he was in the process of applying for permission to import a tiger cub for the educational programme. He said the cub is of Asian origin and already located and being kept in a zoo in Canada, “this cub will also be part of the programme. We have applied last year December to have the cub brought in, we are having problems but I am certain that good sense will prevail”.
When contacted yesterday for comment, President of the TT Zoological Society, Gupte Lutchmedial expressed concerns for the residents of South Valsayn, should the cougar escape and also, for the welfare of the animal, “Cougars are very dangerous and if this animal is not being securely kept and escapes it can surely cause death. Cougars climb a lot. I am also concerned as to whether or not the cougar is being kept safe and in an environment that fits its need. There are a lot of factors to consider when one has to apply for a permit and then import and house it.”
When asked what he thought about the cougar being brought to the country as an exhibit, Lutchmedial replied, “in this day and age where technology is it, it is outrageous.
“There is no need to bring live exhibits for an educational programme especially where children are involved. It is just crazy to think that a cougar will be transported to every school, what happens if something goes terribly wrong. A cougar is a cat that is not domesticated and could never be tamed, even tigers, ever so often you hear about tiger attacks, even to its owners”.
The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the American continents after the jaguar, weighing up to seven times an average human.
Although large, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines.
A capable stalk-and-ambush predator, the cougar pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources include deer, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep, as well as domestic cattle, horses and sheep, particularly in the northern part of its range. It will also hunt species as small as insects and rodents.
This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, but it can also live in open areas. The cougar is territorial and persists at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey.
While it is a large predator, it is not always the dominant species in its range, as when it competes for prey with other predators such as the jaguar, grey wolf, American Black Bear, and the grizzly bear.
Moonilal looks into cougar issue
http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,134946.htmlBy Newsday Staff Monday, January 31 2011
In quarantine: A cougar has been in quarantine in a concrete structure at a private residence on Parima Road, Valsayn....
Housing and Environment Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal is assuring that the ministry is looking into reports that a cougar is being quarantined at a private residence in Valsayn.
He has also disclosed an application for a tiger is also been addressed by the ministry.
Residents sent a letter to Moonilal expressing concern about the cougar which is housed in a concrete structure in the backyard of a home on Parima Road, Valsayn South. The owners of the home have been unavailable for comment.
Last Wednesday, Moonilal told Newsday the Forestry Division, to which the Wildlife Division reports, was looking into the complaint about the cougar.
“That matter is receiving the attention of the Forestry Division. I’m aware of it. There’s a second application for a tiger but the Forestry Division’s Mr Anthony Ramnarine, the Conservator of Forests, is dealing with the matter now,” Moonilal said during a break of a parliamentary seminar at Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain.
Director of Animals for Education Dr Adesh Nanan previously told Newsday the quarantine is due to end in the first week of February, following which the cougar would be transferred to a wildlife exhibit and educational facility in St Joseph. As reported previously, Nanan said Animals for Education imported the cougar from Jungle Cat Zoo in Ontario, Canada, to educate school children about the importance of wildlife conservation.
Nanan is also expressing concern over pending approval of another Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) permit, this time for an Amur tiger cub. He said the cub was captive-bred at the same Canadian zoo from which his organisation obtained the cougar last year, and would remain there until a CITES permit is issued for its importation to Trinidad.
Meanwhile, a senior official in another ministry, the Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs has assured all legal requirements were fulfilled by the importers of the one-year- old cougar. Newsday was also informed veterinarians from the Animal Production and Health Division of the Ministry of Food Production have visited the cougar at least once per week during its six-month quarantine. When questioned about the choice of a concrete structure to house the cougar, rather than at the Emperor Valley Zoo in St Ann’s or at its sister facility at Brigand Hill, the official said approval was given by the Wildlife Division in the Ministry of Housing and the Environment.
Veterinarian and Minister of the People Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh, last Wednesday, addressed the broader issue of the importation of exotic animals. He said persons must adhere to local and international laws on the import and export of wildlife.
“Because cougars and tigers are exotic species, they fall under CITES. Importing these wild animals poses a danger to the national community and to persons living in the vicinity of these animals who are not aware of their presence,” he said.
Ramadharsingh also called for a review of existing laws to ensure they are compliant with the latest international treaties on animal rights and the trade in them.
Cougar tales
http://www.newsday.co.tt/editorial/0,135523.htmlThursday, February 10 2011
THE lodging of an imported cougar in a residential neighbourhood raises concerns about both the welfare of the animal and the safety of nearby residents should the creature escape.
It is a strange state of affairs that anyone — far less a former Minister — would ever decide to be involved in the import of such an animal.
We ask again if a permit has been obtained from the world watchdog body, CITES, to import the cougar, and whether Trinidad and Tobago has a stringent enough procedure to screen such imports, including the right of neighbours to be consulted and informed? We also want to know how a private residence could suddenly become a quarantine station?
Different accounts of the animal’s origins have been given, first saying it was from Utah and then saying it was hand-reared at a private facility in Canada called, Jungle Cat World. The lodging of the animal is being changed from Valsayn after an outcry by residents, to Acono, St Joseph but these residents too are starting to protest the re-location.
Zoological Society head, Gupte Lutchmedial, warned, “Cougars are very dangerous and if this animal is not being securely kept and escapes it can surely cause death. Cougars climb a lot.”
Particularly alarming to us is the fact that a cougar is described as an “ambush predator” who stalks his prey upon whom it then suddenly leaps and delivers a suffocating neck bite. Anyone hearing of such a creature being housed in their locale is surely likely to have sleepless nights.
Residents of South Valsayn and now Acono, St Joseph will take little comfort from studies that say cougar attacks on humans are relatively rare, or from a hypothetical argument that the current crime-wave makes TT citizens more at risk from “cougars in human form”.
The other aspect of this affair is the welfare of the cougar.
Given that a cougar in the wild has a territorial range of at least ten square miles, we suggest a cougar in captivity as in the present case would suffer huge physical and psychological stress that might harm their health and raise the risk of them lashing out at humans. Newsday reported sources saying that even in captivity, a wild animal does not lose its natural aggressive instinct, as shown by the “Siegfried and Roy Tiger Attack” of 2003.
Generally we think that given the stigmatising of zoos and circuses in the developed world due to concerns that these institutions abuse the rights and freedoms of animals that belong in the wild, it is strange to see Trinidad and Tobago now moving in the opposite direction with this new trend of establishing what are, in effect, private zoos, even if deemed by their owners to be educational exhibitions.
We urge parents, children and teachers to become educated consumers when it comes to patronising commercial endeavours that may jeopardise animal welfare.
Even as we recall several years ago that a Mexican travelling show visiting these shores with performing dolphins, we note that a recent documentary, The Cove, exposed the mass killing of dolphins in Asia that accompanied their capture and international trade to private aquaria and shows.
On the topic of animal welfare, we lament that guard dogs deployed at Carnival fetes must suffer immense distress due to the loud music hurting their acute sense of hearing. Again, we recall a top mas band last Carnival opting to use live snakes as a fashion “accessory”, with no thought given to the impact of the noise or heat of the day on those creatures’ well-being.
In addition to seeing a greater assertiveness by the authorities such as the Ministry of National Security and Ministry of the Environment in addressing concerns of the resident of Valsayn and Acono on the cougar matter, we hope that the controversy could also spur some debate on the question as to how we as a society treat animals, both domesticated and wild.
