Cougar seen on video zooming through Washington neighborhood before tearing into home

Brooke Wolford
·2 min read

A cougar was caught on video running through a Washington neighborhood before it made a surprise visit inside a home, police said.

The 150-pound male cougar was seen jumping a fence Tuesday morning, Heather Van Paepeghem, a spokesperson with the Ephrata Police Department, told McClatchy News in an email.

Wildlife and police officers were able to locate the cougar, but it spooked and tried (unsuccessfully) to jump through the house’s window, according to the Wenatchee World.

But the cougar was persistent; after failing to get in through the window, the animal tore through the home’s screen door, The Spokesman Review reported.

The homeowner had been standing outside and called authorities after he realized the cougar had gotten into the house, according to Q13.

Officials with the Department of Fish and Wildlife came inside and shot a tranquilizing dart at the cougar before he tried to get out through a window, Becky Bennett, a spokesperson for the department, told McClatchy News. He was shot with a second dart and ended up passed out in the kitchen sink, according to Bennett.

“I have personally not ever seen a cougar go into a home like this,” Bennett said during a phone interview. “This is very rare.”

The cougar was taken to a “shrubsteppe,” a more suitable area with plenty of room to roam and an abundance of the predator’s food sources, in neighboring Douglas County, Bennett said.

“The shrubsteppe is an arid ecosystem found in Eastern Washington and other western states,” according to the wildlife agency’s website. “Shrubsteppe provides habitat for species found nowhere else in the state.”

Cougars usually venture into more densely populated areas because of “attractants,” like small animals, food and deer, according to officials.

“The focus here is that this is not a normal occurrence — if you have bird feeders or are feeding deer, it’s more likely to attract predators,” Bennett said.

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