NEWPORT, OREGON – At a hearing before Oregon lawmakers today in Newport, Big Wildlife, an international wildlife protection organization, urged officials to immediately halt the state's plan to kill as many as 2,000 cougar across the state. The group also called for a complete ban on trophy hunting of cougars in Oregon. Citing a growing body of science, Big Wildlife testified that aggressive lethal control, along with liberalized hunting of cougars, has disrupted the state's cougar population and increased conflicts with the big cats. The group said the cougar plan and trophy hunting kill cougars indiscriminately and do not target the very rare individual cougar responsible for conflicts. Big Wildlife also pledged to end all trophy hunting of cougars, bears, coyotes, and other large carnivores across the US and Canada.
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