[Mountain Lion] California Mountain Lion Page

California Wildlife Protection Coalition


Mountain Lions and Public Safety

Who's Really Under Attack?

Sport Hunting of Mountain Lion Defeated on Ballot

In the last few years, there have been several mountain lion attacks on individuals in California. They were heavily publicized in newspapers throughout the state. Groups, particularly the National Rifle Association, are trying to take advantage of these incidents to reverse a hard-fought grassroots victory that protects mountain lions from trophy hunting.

In 1990, more than 700,000 volunteers and hundreds of organizations worked together to protect mountain lions in California from being shot for sport. California voters passed the Mountain Lion Initiative. Since then, opponents have been trying to overturn this voter decision in the state legislature. They have not been successful.

Now the National Rifle Association (NRA) is sponsoring a ballot initiative set for March 1996 that would reverse the Initiative. According to the California Wildlife Protection Coalition, such a reversal "will set a dangerous precedent for future protections of California wildlife, and for other successful environmental ballot measures both in California and across the country." The California Wildlife Protection Coalition is a project of the Mountain Lion Foundation & the Planning and Conservation League. They produced the following fact sheet.

The Truth About Mountain Lions And Public Safety

What's at stake?

Our hard-won protection for California cougars. Trophy hunting enthusiasts hope that a campaign of fear and misinformation will allow them to overturn the voters' 1990 decision to ban their cruel sport. If the NRA-sponsored ballot measure challenging Proposition 117 was passed by voters in March 1996, it would:
  1. Allow hunting of mountain lions for sport in California, everywhere in the state except within state parks even in local public parks or on private property;
  2. Encourage the use of cruel steel-jawed traps, leghold traps, and poisons;
  3. Steal $1.2 million from Proposition 117's habitat protection money for private hunting zones for the Safari Club.

Who's behind the measure to allow the trophy hunting of mountain lions?

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Safari Club lobbied this bill through the legislature. Without collecting a single voter signature, and hiding behind a disingenuous concern for public safety, trophy hunters convinced the politicians to delete the protections for cougars that were set into law directly by the citizens of California in Proposition 117. When you blow all the smoke away, the bottom line is that this measure is a specialinterest trophy hunting measure, NOT a public safety measure. They are exploiting two tragic mountain-lion-related deaths in order to promote their creel "sport."

Does current law protect the public?

Yes! Existing law allows trained wildlife and public safety personnel to kill any mountain lion that poses a threat to people. Proposition 117 incorporates Department of Fish and Game (DFG) regulations that specifically allow DFG to professionally manage mountain lions by killing (or authorizing others to kill) any and all lions that damage livestock, domestic animals, and any other private property.

Why doesn't DFG do its job to provide for public safety?

The Department obtains much of its funding from selling hunting licenses to trophy hunters. DFG relies on legislative lobbying by special interest groups like NRA and Safari Club. Unfortunately, the department has deliberately ignored the rare incidents when mountain lions have posed a real threat to public safety, as revealed by public testimony at legislative hearings and by an internal DFG memo. Now, these stories are being used to bolster a campaign to restore trophy hunting.

Would hunting lions give greater protection?

No! It never has. In British Columbia, lion hunting is legal and relentless (200 lions killed for sport each year), yet British Columbians experience over 50% of all the lion attacks in North America. Other states have lion hunting seasons, and still, as people encroach on wild places, they encounter lions. The documents and testimony of California Fish and Game officials state that trophy hunting has no effect on public safety.

What about all the reported sightings of mountain lions?

At a recent Senate hearing, DFG officials admitted that they could only confirm a fraction of the reported lion "sightings." According to the DFG, you only need to call in and say you saw a lion in order to be recorded as a "dangerous incident," and you may call as often as you Eke. How many mountain lions survive in California? No one really knows. In 1987 DFG estimated 5,100 lions in California, but a review of the Department's research by a nationally respected expert concluded that DFG's estimate .was completely unsubstantiated.

Are mountain lions dangerous to Californians?

Your risk of being injured or killed by a mountain lion is infinitesimal. There have been only 13 fatal mountain lion attacks in all of North America in the last 100 years. Eleven of the fatal attacks occurred in western states and provinces where trophy hunting of lions is allowed. According to the Department of Fish and Game's own records, in the last 20 years more than 85 people have died and 700 people have been injured in hunting accidents in California. For every person killed by a mountain lion in the last century, 300 people have been killed by bees,. 750 people have died when their cars collided with deer, 1200 people have been killed by lightning, and more than 1100 people were killed in hunting-related accidents. Hunting presents a much greater threat to public safety than mountain lions.

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California Wildlife Protection Coalition

ORGANIZATIONS ARE ENCOURAGED TO COPY AND FREELY DISTRIBUTE THIS FACT SHEET

Created: November 17, 1995 Last updated 20 December 1995

http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/ca/mountain-lion/safety.html