Editor:
Firstly, there are always cougars around. And bears. This is the wilderness, folks. What did you think it was – a Disneyland park of some kind?
Someone happens to see a cougar, so they close the trail. Or rather, someone let their pet off leash, and the cougar seized its opportunity and went after it.
If they are going to close that trail every time someone sees a cougar or bear, then we can expect a lot of trail closures in the future, because a lot of ignorant people let their pets off leash.
They let them off leash on the trails around town for goodness sake, so why would they not do it way up on Ha Ling or the East End of Rundle? Unless they put Alberta Parks conservation officers up there every day to monitor the situation.
Secondly, cougars rarely go after people. When was the last time a person was attacked by a cougar in this area?
The biologists who study cougars have been known to say it is not even on the radar screen.
I have hiked/scrambled the mountains in this area solo (without a pet) for the last 25 years and never even seen a cougar.
I've encountered them twice down in K-country, and both times they moved away from me.
While people have lost their off-leash pets along the Montane Traverse (behind Eagle Terrace and Silvertip), I have walked that same path literally hundreds of times in my years in Canmore, and again, never seen a cougar (although I'm sure they have seen me).
Cougars are not interested in people. It's your pets they are after.
If people can't keep their pets on leash, then ban pets, not people.
It doesn't seem fair to close the trail to everyone, just because a few ignorant people can't keep their pets on leash.
Al Coats,
Calgary
