It’s been 40 years since California outlawed the hunting of mountain lions. And while an estimated 5,000 big cats roam across half the state—wandering into urbanized places where they don’t belong and otherwise discomforting ranchers and hikers from time to time—actions like that of former state Fish and Game Commission President Daniel Richards, who traveled out of state to hunt them, are not easily tolerated.

Neither is killing mountain lion cubs huddled in the backyard of a home.

Wildlife advocates voiced extreme displeasure and disbelief when game wardens from the state Department of Fish and Game shot to death two 25- to 30-pound cubs believed to be about 9 months old near downtown Half Moon Bay over the weekend.

The wardens were called after the lions were spotted in multiple locations around town and, after deciding the animals were a flight risk and couldn’t easily be captured, killed them. It was thought that the siblings had probably lost their mother and come to town looking for food.

“I just don't think they made a good judgment call here,” Rebecca Dmytryk, founder and director of Wild Rescue, told a reporter for the San Mateo County Times. “This would have been a perfect situation for us to have been called in, or for other wildlife rescuers to be called in to help.”     

Janice Mackey, a Fish and Game spokeswoman, defended the shooting, saying if they darted the cats with tranquilizers, they could go two or three miles before feeling the effects.

But wildlife rescue expert Jay Holcomb disagreed: “You can go to the store and buy some chicken and they'll be on it in a second. It's a no-brainer.”

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Half Moon Bay: Wildlife Groups Criticize Shooting of Mountain Lion Cubs (by Aaron Kinney, San Mateo County Times)

California Cougars: A Conflict Between Man and Beast (by Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times)