Planned Lion Hunt Moves Ahead Despite Howls

A varied string of people pleaded Friday against what would be the first mountain lion sport hunt in California in 16 years. Some vowed direct, nonviolent intervention if the state approves the kill, barred by court order last year.

Ranchers who support the hunt told the state game board that cougars, which they said are too abundant, sometimes kill their livestock.

Opponents responded that ranchers can already legally kill offending lions and repeated their comments of last year that there are still too few cougars to withstand the onslaught of a hunt.

Although foes outnumbered supporters 17 to 7, the state Fish and Game Commission, with little comment, proceeded with a standard administrative course--acceptance of recommendations from its staff for a 79-day lion-hunting season beginning Oct. 8.

The lion hunt and other proposals will be considered for tentative approval March 4 in San Diego and final approval April 8 in Long Beach.

“One of the richest selections of big game hunting opportunities in years awaits California hunters in 1988, if sports regulations proposed Friday by the Department of Fish and Game are adopted,” said agency spokeswoman Peggy Blair in a statement issued after the meeting.

Among the new recommendations are calls for Roosevelt, Rocky Mountain and tule elk hunts, a second year of limited desert bighorn sheep hunts, a special North Coast bear hunt and increased deer hunter opportunity, she said.

Under the lion hunt proposal, those who win tags through a lottery could use hounds to tree and shoot 190 of California’s estimated 5,000 cougars in four zones of the state: the northwest, the west and eastern slopes of the Sierra, and the central coast. Each hunter with a tag could kill one lion.

Last year, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ordered state officials to postpone the first proposed mountain lion hunt since a moratorium in 1972, citing inadequate studies of the environmental effects of renewing the kill.

Fish and Game officials say the report this year is more complete. But opponents of the hunt say the department did not have time to conduct the in-depth studies that are necessary.

Hunt Saboteurs spokeswoman Verena Gill and Earth First! representatives said that about 30 people are prepared to take direct, nonviolent measures to interfere with lion hunters. Tactics would include spreading scents to divert hounds away from the cougars, Gill said.

Hunt opponents have accused the commissioners of being pawns of the gun and hunting lobby. Commission spokesmen deny the charge, but acknowledge that the five members are current or former hunters.

Hunt supporters said they hoped commission decisions would be based on wildlife management considerations rather than on social and political factors.

One supporter called for an open season on lions with a bounty year around.