Malibu’s State Senator Calls Shot Puma ‘Devastating’ As State Moves To Protect Local Cats
Written by 991KBU on February 17, 2020
Controversy over the killing of a mountain lion in the Santa Monica Mountains region continues.
Last Friday … Malibu State senator Henry Stern demanded that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife take urgent action to prevent ranchers from killing mountain lions in the future.
Stern says the killing of P-57 by a rancher protecting his sheep in Camarillo was tragic.
The killing was … quote … a devastating blow to the survival of our mountain lions, and there must be accountability for his death.
Close quote from Stern.
The Malibu state senator demanded the state Fish and Wildlife Department take immediate action … and it apparently did.
Late Friday .. the state announced it was transferring all decison making on mountain lion kill permits be transferred to the director’s office in Sacramento.
Also … that the animal experts will work with Caltrans across the state … to minimize wildlife fatalities.
And mist importantly … Fish and Wildlife officials have endorsed putting the local … isolated population of mountain lions on the threatened species list.
But all this does not change the law passed in 1990 … that gives ranchers the legal right to kill a cougar that eats farm animals.
Nor does it change local land use policies … that allow domestic farm animals to be kept as pets or as income livestock … in the habitat of mountain lions … that sometimes cannot resist the urge to kill domestic farm animals.
Cities and counties do not allow horses or sheep on small lots.
Some California residents say that if this becomes an issue of cougars versus sheep … it is the sheep that have to go
