I also live in the Pacific Northwest. I live on the edge of a watershed. Black bears, cougars and coyotes live within 300m of my house (you should see our heavily armoured and locked garbage cans). It&#x27;s a suburb of Vancouver, so no one really has guns (you&#x27;d mostly find them clustered around grow ops) and you&#x27;d only have bear spray if you&#x27;re going far into the backcountry -- I have a can somewhere in my garage.<p>Dealing with the predators here is no more work than dealing with the Sun and sunburns -- a little bit of behaviour changes and a little bit of equipment goes a long ways. People are just used to it too -- putting on sunscreen, wearing hats, knowing when to seek shade.