Court Edict May Threaten Plans to Revive Lion Hunt

A Superior Court ruling Monday raised new legal questions about the state Fish and Game Commission’s plan to revive California’s mountain lion hunting season, and opponents predicted that the long-delayed trophy hunt will not occur this season.

The action by Judge Lucy McCabe means that the hunt, which has not been held for 16 years, cannot begin until the commission circulates among hundreds of federal and state agencies and interested organizations a report on the environmental impact of killing the mountain lions during a 79-day season scheduled to begin Oct. 8.

“I see very little chance there will be a hunt in 1988,” Michael Remy, lawyer for the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation, said.

The foundation sued the state over the hunt and the dispute has been in and out of court for a year.

“Fish and Game has to make a determination what route they intend to take,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Denis Smaage said, adding that it would take 30 days to circulate the environmental report, if the panel decides to do so.

McCabe did not rule whether there should be a hunt, or whether the environmental impact report that the commission produced last year was adequate, but she said it “looked like a quick-fix thing.”

California banned hunting of mountain lions--also known as cougars and pumas--for sport or trophy after the 1971 season and became the only Western state where it was not allowed.

Provisions of Ban

Killing was permitted, however, if mountain lions threatened humans or livestock.

The ban expired in 1986 and Gov. George Deukmejian refused to extend it, paving the way for the state to issue 190 mountain lion permits last year at $75 apiece. It was estimated that about 60 cougars actually would be killed.

About 3,400 people paid $5 each just to get a chance at the drawing for the permits, but the hunt was never held.

Before the season could begin, McCabe ruled that the state had not adequately studied the cumulative effect of hunting upon the cougars or the environment, and called a halt until changes could be made to meet requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.

By the time the changes were adopted, it was too late for the hunting season.

The state carried over the changes into the 1988 regulations, but did not circulate the revised environmental analysis for public comment because the law required circulating only the draft version, Smaage said.

McCabe said the revisions also should have been circulated, and left it up to the commission to decide whether to do so.

Sharon Negri, executive director of the Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation, said the state has been “in such a rush to get the hunting season going they haven’t done it right. Until they do it right, we’re going to be back in court time and again.”

“Many Californians are opposed to trophy killing of these magnificent animals,” Negri said. “They chase them up a tree with a pack of hounds. Then a hunter comes by and shoots them at point-blank range for a trophy on the wall.”