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 heavi

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's a suburb of Vancouver, so no one really has guns (you'd mostly find them clustered around grow ops) and you'd only have bear spray if you're going far into the backcountry -- I have a can somewhere in my garage. 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.