California’s Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is feeling the heat lately for how they have been managing the protection of the endangered Big Horn Sheep in the Eastern Sierra and how their actions impact the mountain lion population of the area. Mountain lions are the primary predator of the endangered sheep, and officials are tasked with protecting that population.
Unfortunately, it has come to light that the DFG was using contracted hunters to take care of the mountain lion population, and those hunters were using “inhumane and indiscriminate means” to reduce the population. A ruling says that the DFG cannot use “poison, snares, leg-hold or metal-jawed traps to kill mountain lions under any circumstance.” The DFG countered, saying that contract hunters are not using leg snares, but it appeared that they had in the past.
The group spearheading the reform is Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, better known as PEER. The California Field Director of PEER, Karen Schambach, learned that protocol was to shoot to kill any mountain lion spotted, not just mountain lions suspected of killing sheep. With this information that has come to light, new DFG protocols are being developed.
Read more about the issue in the Sierra Wave.
