County hires cougar ace
OK, now this is more like it. Privatization in action--government contracts out the service to a professional. No point in having the Health Department employees try to do something they can't. Especially when they could get eaten.

A Fox Lake man with dogs that are used to track large game in Wisconsin has been hired by the Lake County Health Department to be on call in case authorities receive a bona fide cougar sighting... Wayne Russell has used his dogs to track bobcats, wild boar, bears and raccoons in Wisconsin. The Health Department said his dogs are able to track a scent as old as 12 hours depending on the conditions. "Our goal is to trap the cougar, but we'd like to avoid killing it if at all possible," said Dale Galassie, executive director of the Health Department. The plan is to have the dogs run the cougar up a tree, which is what would happen in a real hunt, and then an animal control officer would tranquilize it, using a dart gun. The animal then would be tranported to a Wisconsin sanctuary for cougars.

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But don't tell the cougar. This won't work unless it's a surprise.