“Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!” This unforgettable refrain from The Wizard of Oz reflects the attitude that some still have toward wild predators. As children we were read a litany of scary books about animals, such as Little Red Riding Hood, and The Three Little Pigs. Today the media has picked up where Grimm’s Fairy Tales left off, providing alarmist coverage of human/animal encounters. While it is wise to respect wild animals and keep a safe distance from them, we have become unduly paranoid of them.
Lately in the Seattle area, we’ve heard about two school lock downs due to a Black Bear roaming near their suburban Bothell campuses. Last year, the presence of coyotes in Seattle neighborhoods caused widespread panic. When a cougar showed up in Seattle’s Discovery Park several years ago, people were discouraged from even entering this huge, 534-acre park, our city’s largest. Do the facts justify our extreme fear of having these wild predators in our midst? Emphatically, no!
- In the past 100 years in Washington State there have only been 15 cougar/human assaults and one fatality; there have been five bear assaults and one fatality;
- According to a Washington Department of Wildlife Living with Wildlife Fact Sheet(boldface emphasis is mine)”There were no documented coyote attacks on humans in Washington state until 2006. In April 2006, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers euthanized two coyotes in Bellevue (King County) after two young children were bitten while their parents were nearby. Coyotes had also scratched and snapped at two women and charged a man in the same area. These coyotes’ unusually aggressive behavior likely resulted from being fed by people.”
So how do these exceedingly rare attacks from wildlife compare to numbers of attacks from other people and their pet dogs?
- In King County, Washington there were 450 attacks on humans by pet dogs in 2009;
- In Seattle there were 1,973 assaults and 19 homicides in 2010;
- The state of Washington had 20,599 violent offenses in 2010 and 154 murders.
So who are you afraid of now? I will take my chances with lions, bears and coyotes.
Sources:
- Seattle Police Department 2010 Crime Statistics
- Crime in Washington 2010 Annual Report – Washington Association of Sheriff’s and Police Chiefs
- Washington Department of Wildlife
