If passed into law, a bill aimed at Washington sheriff Bob Songer’s controversial ‘dangerous wildlife policy’ would curtail county’s authority
Hounded to death: Two cougars killed by deputized hound-hunting members of Sheriff Bob Songer’s posse in Klickitat County, Washington. Photo by Leininger/Klickitat County
By Jordan Rane. January 10, 2022. A bill introduced in the Washington Senate aims to stop counties in the state from using hounds to track and kill cougars—and there’s no mistaking which county (and sheriff) it’s directed at.
The proposed legislation is a response to cougar hunts authorized since 2019 under Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer’s “dangerous wildlife policy.”
“In my opinion and the department’s opinion, he is hunting down cougars that are not a problem,” said the bill’s co-sponsor Sen. Kevin Van De Wege (D-Sequim), as reported by Capital Press.
The “motivation for this bill,” said Van De Wege, “comes from the Klickitat County sheriff.”
Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer likely wouldn’t dispute that last part. Otherwise the controversial official has a different take on the matter.
“We’re not out there killing cougars to be killing cougars,” countered Songer, also in Capital Press, in response to the bill. “That is some of the false narrative they play on. My concern is public safety. That’s number one, and also protection of livestock for the ranchers.”
Senate Bill 5613 was filed prior to the 2022 legislative session, which starts on January 10. Along with Van De Wege, Sen. Christine Rolfes (D-Kitsap County) is co-sponsoring the bill.
Hunts get green light
In 2019, Songer began deputizing local houndsmen to hunt down reportedly troublesome cougars.
Hound hunting for cougars has been illegal in Washington since the 1996 passing of Initiative 655. By invoking a qualified passage in the initiative that makes an exception for such hunts when “protecting livestock, domestic animals, private property or public safety,” Songer essentially (and unilaterally) found a way around the restriction.
Sign of support: Not everyone in Klickitat County opposes the cougar hunts. Photo: Dawn Stover
Songer’s actions have been condemned as an overreach of authority that’s led to the unnecessary killing of a protected animal under the jurisdiction of the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife—detailed at length by Columbia Insight in September 2020 before gaining national attention.
Wildlife advocates took the matter to court in 2021, attempting to stop the hunts. In September 2021, however, a Benton County Superior Court judge ruled in Klickitat County’s favor, allowing the sheriff’s cougar-hunting policies to continue.
Catcalls continue
With a swelling human population and sizable number of cougars, Klickitat County is viewed as a hotspot for human-wildlife encounters. Over the last two years, the county has authorized at least 19 cougar killings by hound hunters.
Songer maintains the cougar killings have been in the line of duty and carried out to protect livestock, pets and people from cougars.
Wildlife groups disagree.
“Most of these incidents really are not a safety risk,” Haley Stewart, a Humane Society wildlife protection manager, told Columbia Insight in 2020. “These are sightings in areas where cougars are known to live—a cougar just being a cougar.”
There have been two fatal cougar attacks on humans in Washington history—most recently a 2018 biker death in North Bend.
The Van De Wege-Rolfes bill aims to limit local sheriff authority by simply striking the word “county” from a law that currently allows county, state and federal officials to pursue cougars with dogs.
“I hope cooler heads will prevail in the Senate and that [this bill] will go down in flames,” said Songer, 76, who famously testified during a 2020 Department of Fish & Wildlife commission on dangerous wildlife—“I’m not here to ask you for permission to do something. I’m doing it anyway.”
MORE: Court declares Klickitat County posse cougar hunts can continue
Having served as sheriff of Klickitat County since 2014 and in law enforcement for over half a century, Songer recently told Columbia Gorge News that he will not be seeking reelection at the end of this year.
In retirement, he said his plans include volunteer work for the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group committed to the idea of ceding local jurisdictional authority to community sheriffs over state and federal officials.
Columbia Insight contributing editor Jordan Rane is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in CNN.com, Outside, Men’s Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
Thank you for publishing this article, I will contact those positive senators and anyone else you can direct me to. Am from a ranching century homestead family with cougar on our property and that’s fine with me, they were here first!
Thank you for being willing to coexist with cougars!
“Science and environmental law can help us learn to share landscapes with fierce creatures, but ultimately, coexistence has to do with our human hearts.”
(Cristina Eisenberg, The Carnivore Way)
Cougars use the landscape in unique ways, and they don’t come down to hurt people, but find food and refuge when the need arises. You’d do the same thing, hopefully without hurting a fellow traveler. Let’s be more tolerant of nature and give her space to live unharmed by man! Don’t shoot our cougars or use dogs to kill them. This is Not of God!