# Arizona Bill Would Ban Mountain Lion, Bobcat Hunting



## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Take Action Now! Arizona Sportsmen and women should contact their State Senator and let them know the harmful repercussions of Senate Bill 1182. Please, ask your Senator to "OPPOSE SB 1182". Currently SB 1182 is before the Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee. Arizona sportsmen can contact their State Senator by using the Sportsmen's Alliance's Legislative Action Center.

Arizona State Senator Steve Farley (D-Tucson) has proposed legislation that would ban mountain lion and bobcat hunting for Arizona sportsmen. Senate Bill 1182 would categorize both cats as protected.

Mountain lions and bobcats are currently managed as game animals by the Arizona Fish and Game Department, and regulated hunts are tightly controlled. During mountain lion season, for instance, anyone who takes a cougar must present a skull to an inspector from the department within 48 hours. The data collected from hunters is used for conservation efforts, to better understand the population and to set future season dates, lengths, harvest quotas and age/sex limits.

"This is nothing more than an anti-hunting legislator acting as a pawn for the animal-rights movement," said Brian Lynn, vice president of marketing and communications. "When anti-hunting groups identified five states to ban mountain lion hunting in last year, and then this year legislation is introduced, you have to ask if the people of Arizona are truly being represented in their legislature. Playing politics with wildlife management has dire consequences for everyone in the state, not to mention the environment."

Senate Bill 1182 is the next step to fulfill a goal of anti-hunting groups to end the pursuit of mountain lions and other felines by anti-hunting groups. The Humane Society of the United States has focused on the western states for years: they successfully financed a 1990 ballot campaign in California that protected mountain lions from any hunting at all, and then followed that with a ban on the use of dogs to purse lions in Oregon in 1994 and used the same bankrupting ballot-initiative tactic to fund a ban on the use of dogs and traps for mountain lions, bobcats and lynx in Washington state in 1996.

Senate Bill 1182 handcuffs scientific wildlife management and endangers both the public and balance of wildlife within Arizona's managed ecosystem.


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks for the heads- up Glen.


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## prairiewolf (Feb 19, 2012)

Thanks Glen, I really doubt it will pass though. Arizona Game and Fish has been having troubles with lions in certain areas and has increased the quota a hunter can take per year. It use to be 1 lion per year per hunter. Now in some areas a hunter can kill from 8 to 15 lions in a year, but cant kill more than 1 per day in those areas. In these areas it is also day or night hunting. But I will still contact my reps as always.


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