SALEM (AP) - Voter-approved restrictions on cougar and bear hunting could be lifted by counties under a bill approved by a House panel, drawing criticism from wildlife advocates.

The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee approved the bill Wednesday without advance notice as an amendment to a bill that would ban the use of remote-controlled weapons to shoot wildlife using the Internet.

Environmentalists and animal-rights supporters were angered that the proposal was attached to another bill, a common tactic for moving controversial legislation.

"It's a dirty deal. It's the kind of thing that would not get out of here if it had to stand on its own," said Sally Mackler, wildlife issues coordinator for the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club.

The amended version of Senate Bill 689 passed 6-1 and now heads to the House floor. It would allow citizens to petition their county commissions to refer to the local ballot a vote on whether to permit the practice of using bait to lure bears and dogs to track cougars and drive them up into trees practices that were banned in a statewide vote in 1994.

Committee Chairwoman Patti Smith said she brought up the surprise amendment Wednesday because it was "the opportune time." The Corbett Republican acknowledged that it is controversial to tack an amendment on to a bill without public notice, denying a chance to prepare and present testimony.

"That's kind of the way it is," Smith said. "It happens to a lot of us here."

She said the hunting issue was more important than questions about legislative procedure.

Bear and cougar hunting has been a politically sensitive issue since 1994, when voters passed an initiative banning the use of bait to lure bears and hounds to track cougars.

Urban voters backed wildlife protection while rural Oregonians saw the measure as a limit on recreation and as a risk to human life and property because the bear and cougar population was controlled by hunters.

In 1996, a measure to repeal that law was rejected on a statewide ballot. In the past decade, lawmakers have proposed measures to roll back or loosen the hunting restrictions, but have failed.

Since 1994, Oregon's cougar population has grown from 3,100 to 5,500, said Ron Anglin, director of the Wildlife Division at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Hunting restrictions are the main reason for the population explosion, and the increase in reported cases of cougar sightings and cougar attacks on pets and livestock, Anglin said.

Smith said the problem is getting serious enough that lawmakers must put their concern for protecting human life and property ahead of their worries about voter backlash.

She had backed a separate measure, House Bill 2759, which would create pilot areas throughout the state, including Douglas and Coos counties, where cougar hunting with dogs would be allowed. But the bill has been languishing for two months in a budget panel because it would cost the state $2.2 million in 2005-07 and $3.3 million in 2007-09.

Rep. Terry Beyer of Springfield was one of two Democrats who joined with all four Republicans on the agriculture panel Wednesday in passing the hunting bill, despite misgivings about the surprise tactics.

"I am firmly of the opinion we have a problem with cougars," Beyer said. "They are moving in to the populated areas or the populated areas are moving out to them."

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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com