September 7, 2006

Commissioners, Staff, Members of the Public:

My name is Denise Massey, 425 South Westnedge, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. I am a lifelong resident of Van Buren County, an attorney practicing in Kalamazoo County, and founder of the Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition. My comments today reflect the official view of the Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition.

Today I'm providing each of you with a packet of information that contains letters to the Department transmitting cougar reports, sighting logs, and photos. I've also included a copy of data reflecting 88 sightings supporting breeding population. Of the 101 sighting reports forwarded to the Department, I've copied 40 of them for your personal review.

As a citizen, I founded Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition because I was astounded at the lack of interest the Department showed for this animal. Citizens are being ignored. They are not being told how to safely live with these animals. Despite knowing of over a thousand cougar sightings and eight confirme cougar scat, the Department told Allegan County residents just last month that Michigan has no cougars.

As an attorney, I founded the Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition because I am also astounded at the blatant violation of the Endangered Species Act.

In 1987, you placed the Cougar on the Michigan endangered species list. By doing so, you established a special relationship with the cat. Every two years, when you review the Michigan Endangered Species List, you leave the cougar on the list and continue the relationship. That role dictates that you "shall" perform acts necessary to conserve, preserve, restore, and propagate Michigan's cougar.

On your own admission, the Department has declared that Michigan has cougars.

*In 1966, your employee Frank Opolka visually observed a cougar and casted the cat's track.

*In 1994, you financed a peer-reviewed book that talked about the existence of cougars and cubs in Michigan. That book recommended that the cougar be recognized, protected, and studied in the Upper Peninsula.

*You confirmed cougar bone and hair fragments from Menominee County in 1984 and 2004.

*You put the cougar on the Endangered Species List in 1987.

*For forty years, your own field staff have seen cougars and those sightings have been acknowledged by Director Humphries as recently as last year.

You have officially recognized the cougar as an endangered species in Michigan. You have also recognized their existence in multiple numbers. With those two factors in place, the next step should be a species management plan. So, let's look at what steps have been taken in that direction. What has been done to preserve and restore the cougar population? The answer is nothing. In fact, the Department openly advises people to shoot the animals if they are attacking livestock, refuses to reimburse farmers for cougar livestock kills, repeatedly denies the cougar's existence to credible observers, and fails to advise people on how to safely exist with the animal.

The Department's position is that the only cougars in Michigan are released pets or transients with no breeding population. When the Department makes that statement, they believe it means that they don't have to treat the cougars as endangered. They are wrong. The Endangered Species Act says nothing about protecting endangered animals if they are "breeding" or "natural" to the State. These grey areas are produced by DNR policy; the Act does not differentiate. Your own researchers told you that in 1994, when you paid them to write a peer-reviewed book. They told you that cougars should be recognized, protected, and studied in the Upper Peninsula despite their origin.

In my opinion, this Commission and the Department are violating the Endangered Species Act. You continually fail to perform acts necessary to conserve, protect, restore, and propagate the Michigan Cougar. You've recognized the cougar, but failed to follow through with management. Ray Rustem's 2003 statement to the Grand Rapids Press summed up the Department's philosophy very well, "If we could verify cougars and found there was a small population, what would we do? We might want to do some education like we do with wolves, but I can't do everything for every species. The (endangered species) law says we should be managing them, but I don't have to drop everything to do it. We have staffing, time and budget constraints, so they're not going to be a priority."

Violation of the Endangered Species Act falls on the shoulders of the Commission, as well as the Department. You learned in the Ingham County bobcat case, it is not just the Department that can be sued when laws are violated.

I disagree with Mr. Rustem's opinion of what the State should be doing about Michigan's cougar. I believe they should be a priority. We can dream that one day everyone in this room will be able to see a wild Michigan cougar and feel the same awe that Vernon Schwartz felt in 1996 when he saw a cougar in Prescott and said, "This experience has to be one of the most exciting of my life. The eyes of the cat rimmed in black seemed almost hypnotic. When he faced me, they stood out over all the rest of his features, and surroundings. It's really hard to explain how magnificent this animal was. No other outdoor experience I've every had will come close to it."

Thank you.