Proposed Hunting of Mountain Lions

This is in reference to your editorial (Feb. 5) regarding the opening of a season for hunting cougars. I find it difficult to understand why The Times would permit someone so ignorant about the matter to write it.

I am 76 years old, have hunted and fished since I was in grade school. I have hunted cougar in three states. My youngest daughter took her first cougar when she was 13 years old.

A couple of months ago I took a grandson bear hunting up in Northern California. Years ago I would see a cougar track once in a while, really very seldom. This trip we saw cougar tracks everywhere we went, and, we covered a lot of area.

There are plenty of cougars to warrant a season. The Times editorial writer, when he or she answered the question as to whether there were enough, answered, “No.” That writer should have answered “I don’t know, I have not even been out of town.”

The Fish and Game Department does an excellent job. We ought to know, we have hunted and fished all over the western part of the continent.

Incidentally, cougars provide a lot of food for smaller animals. They generally do not eat all of their kill, and coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and others eat the rest. If we get too many cougars, they won’t leave any food. Many smaller animals will disappear.

One other bit of information for you: cougars are good to eat, and, history books state that the early settlers even preferred it to deer meat.

RUSSELL C. KERBER

South Gate