Too risky to free cougar
OFFICIAL: Releasing Helena would be dangerous to humans

Ethan Baron, The Province
Published: Sunday, May 07, 2006

As the clamour grows for the release of Helena the death-row cougar, an Environment Ministry official has ruled that it's too dangerous to free the animal in its home region.

"It's purely a human-safety issue," said Steve Matthews, head of the fish and wildlife branch's Okanagan region. "We don't want to be in a situation where someone's going to get hurt or someone's going to get killed as a result of this cat.

"You're really not that far as the crow flies from human development anywhere you put that animal in this region."

The cougar was originally captured because it was preying on pets, and it's lived in a cage since, Matthews pointed out.

"It will not be a very efficient predator," Matthews said.

Helena, found orphaned after the devastating 2003 Kelowna wildfires, now weighs 50 to 60 kilograms and lives in a cage at a wildlife-rehabilitation centre in Smithers.

Wildlife authorities have given shelter owners Angelika and Peter Langen three months to raise $22,000 and build an eight-by-eight-metre covered enclosure for the animal, or it will be killed.

Angelika Langen said many of the hundreds of people who have called and e-mailed the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter want to know why Helena can't be released into the wild.

Matthews said there's nothing to stop the shelter owners from asking that Helena be released to another of B.C.'s wildlife regions.

He also cautioned that the fish and wildlife manager in a particular region would have the final authority on whether to have the animal released there.

But Michael Langen, who works with his parents on the shelter, said relocation to another region is an unlikely option.

The family's understanding is that wildlife regulations prohibit the relocation of a B.C. species from one area to another, he said.

The shelter has raised more than $8,000 toward the enclosure for Helena.