Action on Hunting of Lions Put Off Until April

Refusing to make what one member said would have been a “hasty decision,” the California Fish and Game Commission on Friday delayed until April any move toward establishing a hunting season on mountain lions.

The commission listened to dozens of speakers for nearly three hours before putting off action on the highly controversial and emotional issue. It had been expected to make a tentative decision Friday on whether to end a 15-year ban on sport hunting of the big cats.

“This way we’ll keep all our options open,” said Commissioner Robert Bryant of Yuba City. “We’ll look over all this testimony and then come back and make our final decision.”

The commission meeting, in the Redding City Council chambers, attracted an overflow crowd of about 150 that spilled out onto the sidewalk and street, tying up traffic and confounding local police.

Commission President Albert Taucher of Long Beach said he wanted to learn more about criticism of the Department of Fish and Game’s biological studies by groups opposing the department’s proposal for a limited hunting season.

“What they (the groups) said completely contradicts our biologists,” Taucher said. “I want to know more about that. Maybe our guys aren’t right.”

Survey by Biologists

Taucher was referring to a survey by the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation. Sharon Negri, president of the foundation, said the survey by biologists cast doubt on the accuracy of the state’s estimate that there are at least 5,100 lions in California.

“The department’s proclaimed intensive research appears only cursory and randomly applied,” Negri said.

The ban on sport hunting of mountain lions was imposed by the Legislature in 1972 and technically expired at the end of 1985. The commission has extended the ban since then while it studies reports on the lion population and considers possible hunting regulations.

The issue drew added attention last year in Orange County after two children were mauled by lions in separate incidents.

If approved, the hunting season on mountain lions would begin on the second Saturday in October--Oct. 10 this year--and continue for 79 days. Permits would cost $75. 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.

Sidewalk Discussion

When discussion of the proposal was delayed for three hours Friday because a plane carrying two commissioners from Orange County to Redding developed engine trouble, the sidewalk outside the meeting hall became the scene of a raging debate.

Sport hunters and ranchers from the Redding area jawed with opponents of the hunt. The opponents carried signs reading “Just say No” and “How about a bounty on the Deuk?”--a reference to Gov. George Deukmejian, whose veto of a 1985 bill extending the moratorium on lion hunting opened the door to consideration of the hunting season.

As of Friday, the commission had received 4,014 letters opposing the hunt and 162 in support. But testimony was more balanced at the hearing in this predominantly rural area, where ranchers and deer hunters complained that the lions pose a danger to pets, livestock and deer herds.

“That lion is a killer,” said David Fitzpatrick, a rancher from nearby Whitmore. “He’s highly productive. He lives a long time. He doesn’t have a natural enemy that wipes him out. I’m definitely against the preservation of an animal that is an enemy of our deer herd.”

Another rancher said the opposition to lion hunting was based on sentiment toward the lion as a “kitty.”

“But when they grow up they’re not a kitty cat but a killer,” said Earl Dunlap of Red Bluff. “They live by their claws and teeth.”

Supporters of the proposed hunt included county boards of supervisors in nine Northern California counties, the California Cattlemen’s Assn., the California Woolgrowers Assn. and the California Natural Resources Federation.

Attack on Credibility

In attacking the credibility of the Fish and Game Department’s biological studies, opponents contended that too little is known about the lion population and the effect a hunting season would have on it. They also pointed out that ranchers have always been able to kill lions that prey on their livestock.

Bill Yeates, spokesman for the Mountain Lion Coalition, said the department’s study of the lion population improperly extended limited tracking and sightings to large areas.

Department of Fish and Game biologists said in February that they believed that 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. The department estimates that there are at least 5,100 lions in California.

The proposal for a hunting season divides the state into five zones, with limits on the numbers of lions that could be killed ranging from 20 to 80 in each zone. Three areas of the state--the southeastern desert, the northeastern corner of the state and a region between San Francisco and Monterey--would remain off limits to hunters.

The Southern California zone stretches from Los Angeles south along the coast to the Mexican border, where at least 400 lions are thought to be living. As many as 20 cougars a year could be killed in that region under the department’s proposal. Most of San Bernardino County and the eastern half of Riverside County are excluded from the hunting zone.

Even if hunters managed to bag the maximum 20 lions a year in the southern zone, the population of lions in Orange County would not be expected to change, state biologists said. That is because the lions naturally replenish the population to the level the environment is able to sustain, they said.