Tempers Run High at Lion Hunting Hearing

Activists trying to prevent the resumption of mountain lion hunting in California got their first chance to confront the state Fish and Game Commission on Friday, and they used it to revile hunters, to belittle state mountain lion population estimates and to demand that commissioners ignore the “insignificant” hunters’ lobby.

Tempers ran high during the 2 1/2-hour hearing, and two commissioners fired back criticism at the preservationists who dominated the packed audience in the Long Beach City Council chambers.

The state Department of Fish and Game this week recommended the resumption of mountain lion hunting after a 14-year moratorium. The department proposed a 79-day season for sport hunting of mountain lions, sometimes called cougars, and annual issuance of 210 permits, each costing $75.

Two More Hearings

Commission approval is needed, however, for the recommendation to take force. The commission will hold two more hearings--March 6 in Redding and April 10 in Sacramento--before voting on the issue.

One speaker from British Columbia threatened Friday to organize a tourist boycott of California if a mountain lion hunt is allowed.

“I just hate like hell to be threatened,” Commission President Albert C. Taucher of Long Beach retorted.

“How about the mountain lion?” several people from the audience shouted.

The moratorium on mountain lion hunting expired after Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed an extension in 1985. An Assembly bill has been introduced that would reinstate the ban.

Preservationists reacted to this week’s proposed resumption of hunting by promising to mobilize opposition to the hunt. At Friday’s hearing, opponents arrived with signs, posters, stenciled paw prints, buttons, T-shirts and petitions. One couple dressed in mountain lion costumes.

1972 Moratorium

The moratorium was enacted by the Legislature in 1972, at a time when the state estimated that the mountain lion population had declined to about 600. Now officials think that the lions have proliferated.

But William Yeates of the Mountain Lion Coalition told commissioners that “we have no faith at all in (state Fish and Game) population figures,” which estimate that there are 5,100 mountain lions in California. He said the estimate seems to increase each year without justification.

A few speakers spoke in favor of renewed hunting. Bob McKay, president of the California Wildlife Federation, which he described as “the sportsmen’s lobby,” said his 150,000 members favor the proposal.

Earl Wright of Garden Grove, who said he used to hunt mountain lions before the moratorium, characterized hunting mountain lions as “very hard work.”

‘Few Men Tough Enough’

“You spend days on the trail and not in a camp or comfortable conditions. You follow the hounds all day long. When night comes, you build a fire and sit in front of that fire, and you shiver all night long and hope you can find the dogs the next morning.

“Few men are tough enough to really be lion hunters,” he said, provoking laughter from the audience. Commission Executive Secretary Harold C. Cribbs chided the audience for not being respectful.

Many more speakers, however, came to the lectern and belittled hunters.

“The days of the rednecks have passed,” said Dorothy McConkle of the Friends of the Mountain Lion. People have better means of self-expression “than decorating our walls with the heads of dead animals,” she said.

Karen DeBrall of Santa Cruz, dressed in a mountain lion costume, called hunting a “biological and ethical crime.”

Another man from the audience berated Fish and Game authorities for “selling one of the highest forms of life--the cougar--for $75 to one of the lowest forms of life--the head hunter.”

‘Almost Unbelievable’

Actress Tippi Hedren, who said she has raised big cats at her own preserve, told commissioners that “it is almost unbelievable to me to understand the mentality of a person who could allow the lights to be shot out of these magnificent creatures.”

A resolution from the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors was presented that asked that the state begin no mountain lion hunting season there until county officials can review the Department of Fish and Game’s data.

Two small children were mauled by mountain lions last year at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park in Orange County, forcing temporary closure of the park.