Save the Cougar T.shirt

There are two ways we can live: through fear and control, or through love and freedom. When a cougar appeared on Bowen Island, I created this t-shirt from a wish, to help protect the cougar and to explore the fear its presence stirred. Over time, it became a symbol of so much more. Even as the conversation around it has shifted, the message remains vital: can we choose love, in every moment?

Now more than ever, we need to protect and cherish what remains, our precious biodiversity. Everytime a species goes extinct it blows a hole in the sophisticated intelligent net of what holds us. 

I’m writing this while reading The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall (you can borrow it from the library), reminded that even the smallest actions matter.

Nature is not something we control, extract and remove for our needs. As long as we believe we stand at the top of the pyramid, that everything exists for our benefit. We move closer to our own destruction. True harmony comes when we remember that we are not separate from nature, but part of it. There is a way of living rooted in reciprocity, where every being is seen as equal and essential, balance can be restored.

By understanding our true place in the web of life, we can choose coexistence with everything. When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone Park, everything began to change. The wolves kept elk from overgrazing the riverbanks, allowing trees and plants to return. As the vegetation revived, rivers healed, fish returned. With the returning vegetation, beavers built their dams, ecosystem engineers creating habitats that nurture life and increase biodiversity. With fewer elk, flowers flourished and with them, bees. Bears thrived with more berries, and the balance rippled outward: mice and rabbits returned, followed by eagles and coyotes. The elk stabilized and became healthier and no longer starving to death in the winter. Cougars are vital to the health of our ecosystems. They scatter nutrients, keep deer populations healthy, protect plants, and in turn, help forests, rivers, birds, soils, and human communities thrive.

I almost ended this t-shirt with Save the Earth, but it’s us who need saving. The Earth will endure. Ancient Wollemi pines where found in a deep canyon in Australia, once thought extinct, survived 200 million years and seventeen ice ages, quietly getting on with it.

When hope is lost or you are feeling eco- anxiety, as our news is only projecting the deep shadow and pain of our society, read about rewilding projects — especially in Europe, where I’m from, witnessing how life rebounds in mind blowing ways when we give it space. Nature always knows the way back to balance and in small or big ways we can help her.

UNDERSTAND if the cougar is “relocated,” it’s almost certainly being killed. In 19 recent relocations, the Province also destroyed 1,029 cougars, with another 439 killed by other means. So asking the Conservation Officer to “immediately and humanely remove the animal” is, in 99.8% of cases, asking for its death. Please sign this petition for protecting our Bowen Cougar.

use BOWENISLAND if you would like to pick up from my studio and avoid shipping costs.

Made to order to minimize waste – estimated delivery: 2–3 weeks.

Premium / Sustainable Cotton/Poly T-shirt

Unisex sizing

BELLA+CANVAS uses sustainable manufacturing processes with Blue Sign certified dyes, efficient dye houses that adhere to the state of California’s EPA regulations around waste water treatment and usage, and cutting facilities in Los Angeles that run on partial solar power with comprehensive recycling programs for paper waste and fabric scraps.