The state of California has had enough. After losing a $2 million suit to the parents of a five-year old girl who was mauled in a public park, and with a number of other lion lawsuits pending, members of the California legislature have approved legislation to place Proposition 197 on the March 26th Primary ballot. The measure, if passed, would require the state to manage its exploding mountain lion population.

Animal rightists and environmental groups are outraged. Although they now admit that their computer model "study" that helped get Prop. 117 passed in the first

place was "flawed," they say the new legislation is intended to placate California's 50,000 licensed hunters who just want to kill lions.

"This bill is about trophy hunting," says Paul Van Dyke, Campaign Director of the California Wildlife Protection Coalition. The coalition is made up of the Sierra Club, the Humane Society, the Planning and Conservation League and the Mountain Lion Foundation. These groups are mobilizing once again to convince voters that mountain lions are "the one remaining symbol of our wilderness heritage" and that they have just as much right to life as humans.

That concept may be harder to sell this time around. Editor's note: Proposition 197 will permit California's Department of Fish and Game to manage the state's exploding mountain lion population that is presently destroying the state's livestock, deer, elk, bighorn sheep and an occasional human life. Our Ed. note: Maybe when NDOW and the Wildlife Commission loses their first lawsuit, they will wake up to the fact that we have a lion problem in our state. The people of Nevada did not vote to protect the mountain lion. NDOW and the Wildlife Commission are the ones responsible for protecting the mountain lion in Nevada. •

Reprinted from Livestock Market Digest January 29, 1996