Rebellious teenage cougar wouldn’t leave trap

State fish and wildlife agents were faced with a challenge
when they had to release a cougar from a trap
Wednesday. It didn’t want to go.

The cat had been caught in a large cylindrical metal trap
while wandering too close to Arlington homes.

According to state fish and wildlife officers, the 2-
year-old female was about the age where cougars
separate from their mothers.

In essence, the cougar was a rebellious teenager getting
thrown out of the house.

“She’s [the mother] kicking them off into the cruel world,
and they’re often the ones that do the traveling and end
up in our fringe areas or end up in our urban or suburban
areas trying to establish a cougar territory,” says
Department of Fish and Wildlife Sergeant Rich Phillips.

Officers tipped the trap to slide the cougar out,
to no avail. After banging on the cage, thrusting a pole
inside at the cat, and shouting, the cougar finally
ran out when officers sprayed pepper spray into the back
of the trap.

Officer Dave Jones fired bean bag rounds to scare the
cougar away so that it wouldn’t come back.

This time of year especially, cougar encounters are more
common and state fish and wildlife officials work hard to
round up stray cougars and bears.

“Well, one: people are more active, so we’ve got more
people out in the woods. And, number two: this is normally
the time of year when an adult female cat will wean
herself of the cubs she has been raising for the last
couple of years,” says Sgt. Phillips.

The most common reason that cougars wander into
neighborhoods is because they smell food.

Wildlife officials caution families in suburban areas to
secure trash cans and to feed pets inside to mitigate this
problem.

In this case, the cougar hadn’t harmed any pets or
livestock in the area, so wildlife officers were able to
release it into the wild after making sure it wasn’t
injured.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.