I was called on this past Tuesday, January 23 with information from Cecil Fredi of HUNTER S ALERT about a lion incident that took place up at Cold Creek. On late Sunday night or early Monday morning a nanny goat and two day old kids had been killed by a mountain lion in their pen at John Edwards home.

Further, on Monday evening about 5:30, John s dogs started barking. Mrs. Edwards being home alone took her .38 caliber revolver and a flashlight and went out to investigate what was going on. She found that her dogs had cornered an old female mountain lion with one of her chickens.

The lioness was growling at her and would not give up the chicken. With the dogs holding the lioness at bay, Mrs. Edwards went in the house to call John. John being on duty, called a neighbor, Cliff Bach to go and help Mrs. Edwards.

Cliff is the assistant fire chief of Cold Creek. He being a good fireman contacted the chief, Terry Meyers. They both went to the Edwards home to kill the lioness.

The is not the first lion incident that has taken place at Cold Creek nor is it likely to be the last. With the cold weather and snow that we are having in the mountains, the lions are moving down to find food.

To date, two dogs, several cats, a tame burro that used to hang around Cold Creek looking for hand-outs, a 600 pound wild horse and several pet rabbits have all disappeared. Metro has taken several calls about a lioness and two cubs being spotted walking down Rainbow Blvd. in the Rainbow Subdivisions on Mount Charleston. Tracks of a smaller lion were found in the Edwards pen. Hunters have spotted a large torn hanging around in the Cold Creek drainage.

In speaking with Cliff Bach, he was able to make an observation about the elk at Cold Creek. It seems that in the past

couple of years there have been few elk calves seen in this area, this from a man who watches the elk every night from his living room window. Could we be losing another one of our game animals to yet another predator.

The most alarming thing about this incident was the response from NDOW. John Edwards called six different phone numbers for help. He received a recorded message each time. When John was finally contacted, it came from a game warden at Lake Mead. When John asked about the length of time that it took to get a response from NDOW he was told that NDOW employees have a life too. Just think if Metro or the Nye County Sheriffs Office had that type of attitude.

Folks, it is time to do something about the lion problem here in Nevada. In the past ten years four people have been killed in California. Just this last spring a hiker from California was killed here in Northern Nevada.

Next month I will be lobbying in Carson City to get a new HUNTER S ALERT bill passed. Part of this bill deals with mountain lion. I have spoken with other members of the hunting community. These people feel that if we make changes on the mountain lion the anti s will come out after us.

I say that it is time to stop worrying about something that may not even exist. We have sound scientific research backing us up. We can look at all of the problems that California has had. Here you have a state that is the seventh largest economy in the world and they cannot even provide their citizens with electricity. This, all because of weak-minded liberal politicians who would rather make people feel good than do the right thing.

If we in the hunting community sit around and do nothing then we deserve what ever happens to us. The majority of the people of this state will listen to reason and do

the right thing.

In closing, I would like to say how sick and tired I am of hearing how the people in Las Vegas are a bunch of tree huggers and anti s. Let s take our heads out of our, well, you know where your head is stuck, and look at where the majority of hunting licenses are sold in this state. They are sold right here in southern Nevada.

Wake-up people. With a little education, this is an issue that we will wind hands down!!!

Tune into OUTDOOR ADVENTURES, the radio show, every Sunday morning on AM720, K-DWN.

By Peter Liakopoulos Reprinted from Desert Valley Times and Pahrump Valley Times