California Fish and Game Commission President Daniel Richards holds the puma he killed in Idaho
Posted on 03/01/2012 1:20:03 PM PST by SmithL
Democratic lawmakers may attempt to oust California Fish and Game Commission President Daniel Richards as early as next week following outrage over his legal killing of a mountain lion on a recent Idaho hunting trip.
Assembly Democrats on Wednesday were looking into the possibility of a legislative resolution that would remove him from the board, one day after Richards sent a letter to the Legislature, the governor and other state officials defiantly defending the killing, mocking critics for their outrage and saying that - contrary to beliefs that the shooting was purely a trophy kill - he did, in fact, eat mountain lion.
"Do you really think a California commissioner is actually obligated to follow California laws across these United States? Really?" Richards wrote on Fish and Game letterhead in a two-page correspondence. "Did I try to change California's laws subversively? Did I encourage anyone to circumvent our rules and regulations? ... While I respect our Fish and Game rules and regulations, my 100 percent legal activity outside California, or anyone else's for that matter, is none of your business."
Richards, a commercial Realtor and developer from Upland (San Bernardino County) who has been on the commission since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him in 2008, came under fire after a blog posted a photograph of him grinning as he holds up the dead mountain lion. The website, Western Outdoor News, quoted him saying, "I'm glad it's legal in Idaho."
Through a spokeswoman, he declined to comment Wednesday.
It is permissible to hunt the big cats in Idaho, but California has banned the practice since 1971, and voters have twice renewed the restriction in the years since. Richards told the blog that he shot the cougar with a .45-caliber rifle in January after spending eight hours on a $7,000 hunt...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Dayum - nice kittie!
Can anybody make sense of the title of this post?
Article read of headline sense cougar none
What a load of crap. If he had been caught poaching its one thing but this is a ridiculous attempt to remove the man for a completely legal activity.
The simple fact is that hunters and sportsmen are the best possible people to have in these positions.
Ashton Kutcher ping...
I’m planning a black bear hunt in Maine next year. After that, it’s a cougar hunt. The state fish and game officers know their game populations and issue permits in a responsible and sustainable manner. There’s nothing wrong with filling those tags. Poaching of any kind but especially of endangered species, that’s another issue entirely of course but that is clearly not the case here. This is just another example of looney liberalism run amok in California.
Here is what all this is about.
“Escalating a battle between hunters and animal welfare groups — a conflict that could result in major changes to California’s endangered species and hunting policies — 40 Democratic state Assembly members Friday sent a letter to Dan Richards, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, demanding that he resign.”
(snip)
The controversy has prompted an outpouring of support for Richards from hunting and fishing groups, many of which see Richards as the most reliable vote for their issues.
(snip)
The stakes are high. The five-member commission not only decides which species to list as endangered, it also sets policies on everything from hunting to California’s new system of “marine protected areas,” which ban fishing in areas off the coast.
If Richards, who was appointed to the five-member commission by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, resigns or is removed from the panel, his replacement would be named by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. And that’s a move that for the first time could give the commission a majority of members who tend to support the priorities of environmental groups.
(snip)
“There’s a lot at stake,” said Jennifer Fearing, state director of the Humane Society of the United States.
Gaines, the hunting advocate, agreed.
“We’re very well aware that this is a key seat, as are the animal rights groups,” he said. “There’s only five votes, so if you get three, you win.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_20041625?source=pkg
Some of the libtards are claiming that it was a “hunt of a ‘released’ cougar in a confined area.”
Anybody heard anything reliable on that?
The problem (well, a problem) with the Left is that they cannot allow you to escape their totalitarian grip on your throat by moving to another jursidiction.
US tax code on Americans working outside our borders seems to be analogous.
Just what part of legal killing do they not get?...........
There is a poll at the link, it badly needs Freeping.
The Libtards of Kalifornia think all of their inane laws are divine and must be adhered to in ALL states as they know better than the the citizens what is good for us.
According to these whacko’s we should just let them dictate all activities nationwide.
I got more information out of the article that was posted several days ago........
Folks we can easily turn this poll on it’s head. There’s only 2500 or so votes so far, and we’re trailing by 58 to 42%.
Lets defend this guy. It appears this is a move to remove him for political reasons.
Lets no let that happen.
No, it's BS
California has become a bigger lunatic asylum than New Jersey.
He shot it legally. So WHAT????
Demcorats are a public health menace. Don’t kill anything - regardless of its use to you as food or a threat to your personal safety AND live in the dark, the cold, the heat, without modern conveniences, exterminate the very young and the very old.
They are insane.
Maybe the end product of species mental development is species suicide and Democrats are a means to that end. The brain evolves only so far, then it implodes.
Democrats balance not killing predators with being comfortable with killing infants. Which seems more immoral, a cougar hunt or a partial birth abortion?
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