Voices: Cougars have cost me thousands of dollars in livestock. That doesn’t mean I want them all killed.

In 2023, Utah declared open season on cougars in an effort to decrease their impact on livestock and increase the number of huntable mule deer in our state. Hunters, nonhunters and conservation organizations objected to the decision and have raised concerns about the resulting drop in cougar numbers.

Recently, the state has doubled down, announcing its proposal of “WRI 7707- Predator Management Survey” a study which aims to aggressively remove more cougars from several areas of the state.

I’m a sheep producer in southern Utah. Over the past decade, cougars have killed roughly 100 sheep on my farm. Those depredations cost me around $30,000 — as well as a pile of sleepless nights.

If anyone should be grateful for fewer cougars, it’s me.

I’m not grateful.

A farm has to pay its bills. We pay for fertilizer, seeds, repairs and fuel — the list goes on. If we want a crop — and the ability to harvest it — we must pay those bills. Those inputs are parts of an economic system that a farm can’t function without. If one piece falls, so falls the farm.

I see cougars the same way. They’re part of a living system that includes water, weather, pollinating bugs and other organisms that a farm can’t function without.

I don’t mind paying my cougar bill.

Historically, I experience two to four cougar predation events per year. There were zero in 2024, and one in 2025. There are more deer fawns in the alfalfa than I’ve ever seen. On the surface, that sounds like a good thing, but all is not as it should be.

We’re witnessing the removal of a necessary part of a natural system, and Mother Nature will be handing us the bill.

Without cougars, coyotes — who move carefully in cougar country — would increase in number and fill the holes dead cougars leave behind. I know how to deal with cougars. I’ve had to kill depredating cougars who refused to be dissuaded. But the majority who take sheep on my farm end up leaving alive, thanks to hazing techniques I’ve developed over the years. That’s something to be proud of.

It wouldn’t be the case with coyotes. We’d suffer just as many losses, and it would take more killing to keep lambs at their mother’s sides.

The deer herd would grow quickly. That’s good news to deer hunters, myself included. But the deer — who ought to move from place to place, evading the cougars who haunt them — would likely become complacent and gladly stay in one place longer.

That would cause oak and aspen shoots to suffer. Seeds and berries would be in shorter supply. Turkeys would find less to eat and grouse would have less cover. Squirrels would have less luck storing for winter and the critters who rely on their forgotten caches would struggle to adapt. All of their numbers would decline, along with the cougars’.

Farmers like me would lose more forage and hay to the deer’s consumption and trampling. DWR would have to issue extra doe permits, and a lot more deer could end up shot to protect feed for livestock.

Chronic Wasting Disease could significantly impact bigger, more condensed herds of mule deer. That’s a lesson other states have already learned, managing for larger than normal ungulate populations.

Thousands of deer would still be killed by vehicles. Thousands would still starve in winter, where homes dot hillsides on their winter range. There are more than twice as many people in Utah as there were when I was born here. We built a world that’s hard on mule deer.

Getting rid of cougars is a classic example of seeing every problem before you as a nail, when all you’ve got to work with is a hammer. There are other tools worth using, but implementing them will require creativity and a scientific approach. That’s not easy, nor is it cheap.

We say “freedom isn’t free” because we accept the reality that our blessings come with a price. I feel most blessed when I accept my position in the living system. For me, that’s the root of freedom.

It’s not too late to correct our course. Cougar numbers can rebound if we restore their status as a valuable big game species and entrust their management to biologists, not bureaucrats. If we fail to make a change, we’re at risk of losing cougars for generations.

They’ll become unknowable in their rarity, but there will always be cougars in Utah. Proponents of deregulation and extermination will tout those isolated big cats’ presence and say, “All is well.” Our eyes and our ears and our hearts will know that something’s missing. So will our kids. What a terrible price to pay.

I’m contacting my state representative and DWR’s Wildlife Board to respectfully encourage them to reconsider. Please consider respectfully speaking up with me.

Andy Rice is a husband and father. He is a dedicated naturalist and a full-time farmer in Boulder, Utah.

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