Fish and Game Proposes a Cougar Hunt for This Fall

The California Fish and Game Department on Tuesday proposed a mountain lion hunt that could result in the killing of as many as 210 of the animals statewide.

If the plan, opposed by many environmentalists, is approved by the Fish and Game Commission, the result would be the first legal sport hunting of mountain lions in 15 years. Up to 20 lions could be killed in an area stretching from Los Angeles south to the Mexican border, a region that is believed to be home to at least 400 of the big cats, known commonly as cougars.

Officials said the proposal was not prompted by last year’s mauling of two Orange County children.

All of Orange County would fall within the department’s proposed southern hunting zone. Hunting in the county is allowed only inside the boundaries of Cleveland National Forest, and also on private lands if hunters have licenses and written permission from the property owner.

The proposed hunting season would begin on the second Saturday in October and continue for 79 days.

If approved, the plan will end a ban on mountain lion hunting that began with a moratorium imposed by the Legislature in 1972 and continued through 1985. Although that moratorium expired in 1986, the ban on hunting cougars has continued while the Fish and Game Commission studied reports on the lion population and considered possible hunting regulations. California is the only western state that prohibits the hunting of mountain lions.

For the past year, several groups have pressured the commission to lift its ban. Among them are hunters who want to shoot the lions for sport, deer hunters who believe the lions are a danger to several California herds and ranchers upset about losing their livestock to the cats.

Preservation groups, meanwhile, quickly attacked the plan as unnecessary and exploitive. They said the state’s estimate that there are at least 5,100 lions in California was too high.

The two maulings in Orange County’s Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, one in March and the other in October, focused increased attention on the lions and their habitat. But state officials said the attacks, in which 5-year-old Laura Michele Small and 6-year-old Justin Mellon were injured, did not play a role in the department’s decision to recommend a hunting season.

State officials who unveiled the plan at a Capitol news conference Tuesday said they believed the taking of 210 lions a year would have little or no effect on the statewide lion population or the number of lions in each region. Terry Mansfield, assistant chief of the department’s Division of Wildlife Management, said state studies have shown that the lion population, through natural processes, tends to quickly replace those lions killed or captured.

“I have no problem with what the department has proposed,” said Bob McKay, president of the California Sportsman’s Lobby, a pro-hunting group. “I’m very, very pleased. They’ve done their homework and done what they were asked to do by the commission a year ago.”

Conservationists were less happy.

“The purpose behind this is simply to kill 210 lions and allow somebody the opportunity to do that,” said Bill Yeates, state representative for the Mountain Lion Coalition. “What we’re doing is, we’re going to send out a pack of hounds, and we’re going to chase this animal until it’s exhausted and then we’re going to shoot it at point-blank range. To me, it’s just exploitation.”

Richard Spotts, a lobbyist for the Defenders of Wildlife, said his group will also oppose the plan when it goes before the Fish and Game Commission at a hearing Friday in Long Beach.

“We believe that an overwhelming majority of Californians would find lion trophy hunting repugnant once they learned how it is conducted,” Spotts said. “This is sport hunting for fun. This is not hunting to protect livestock or people.”

Opposition to the plan in the Legislature was swift. Assemblyman Tom Bates (D-Oakland) introduced a bill Tuesday reinstating the total ban on mountain lion hunting. Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed similar legislation in 1985.

Under the department’s plan, licensed hunters could pay $5 to enter a lottery for one of the 210 mountain lion permits and an additional $75 to purchase the tag once their name is drawn in the lottery. Mansfield said he expects the state will receive at least 2,500 applications for the 210 tags.

Mansfield estimated that only 5% to 30% of the hunters would be successful, meaning that somewhere from 10 to 63 lions would actually be killed.

The plan divides the state into five hunting zones, with limits ranging from 20 to 80 lions in each zone. Lion hunting would not be allowed in three areas of the state--the southeastern desert, parts of the northeastern corner and a region between San Francisco and Monterey. These areas have been set aside for further study.

No lions less than a year old, and no females accompanied by young, could be hunted. No bait could be used to attract the lions. Each hunter would be issued no more than one tag and could hunt in only one of the five zones.

The Fish and Game Commission is not expected to act on the hunting proposal for several weeks.