California Craziness Continues

[billrquimby]

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20041625

 

Majority of California Assembly members call for resignation of wildlife official who killed mountain lion

By Paul Rogers

 

progers@mercurynews.commercurynews.com

 

Posted: 02/24/2012 09:09:12 PM PST

February 25, 2012 3:25 PM GMT Updated: 02/25/2012 07:25:12 AM PST

 

 

California wildlife official in hot water over mountain lion hunt

 

 

The days may be numbered for a top California wildlife official who sparked a controversy by shooting and killing a mountain lion in Idaho.

 

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.

 

The firestorm began after a hunting newspaper recently published a photo of Richards, a Republican from San Bernardino and outspoken trophy hunter, holding a dead mountain lion he shot at the Flying B Ranch in northern Idaho earlier this year.

 

Mountain lion hunting in California was first banned by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1972 in five-year increments. It was outlawed permanently when California voters passed Proposition 117 in 1990.

 

In Idaho, however, hunting mountain lions is legal.

 

Hunting groups have rallied to Richards' defense. But critics, led by the Humane Society of the United States, argue that Richards showed bad judgment and mocked the will of California voters.

 

"Your actions raise serious questions about whether you respect the laws of the people of California and whether you are fit to adequately enforce those laws," the letter from the Assembly Democrats said.

 

It closed with an ominous tone: "We hope that you decide to put the people of California and

their collective values first and that this unfortunate incident does not continue to distract the work of the Legislature."

 

Under state law, any fish and game commissioner can be removed by a simple majority vote in both houses of the state Legislature.

 

With 40 of the 80 members of the Assembly calling for Richards to resign, his future on the commission appears to be in serious jeopardy. A similar letter is now circulating in the state Senate, where Democrats hold 25 of the 40 seats.

 

Richards did not return calls seeking comment.

 

Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, wrote the Assembly letter and organized the signature gathering. His staff said that more than 40 members would have signed, but Hueso decided to stop at 40. There are 52 Democrats in the 80-member Assembly.

 

"I have received an outpouring of support from my constituents to remove the commissioner from his position," Hueso said. "This incident has ignited such an uproar in communities across the state, I am concerned that if Commissioner Richards were to remain on the commission, it would compromise the reputation and ability of the California Fish and Game Commission to continue its good work in the future."

 

Hueso's staff said if Richards does not resign, the assemblyman will likely introduce a resolution to force his removal.

 

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.

 

"If he would have shot that mountain lion in California, he would have been thumbing his nose at the voters of California," said Bill Gaines, president of the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance, a hunting advocacy group. "We would have called for his resignation.

 

"But for him to do it legally in another state, a state that bases their mountain lion management on science -- and not emotions like we have here in California -- and to be condemned for it, we just flat-out disagree with that."

 

Some hunting and fishing groups are urging their members to turn out en masse at the next Fish and Game Commission meeting, which will be held March 7 in Riverside.

 

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. Currently, the commission is split 2-2, with Commissioner Richard Rogers often casting the swing vote.

 

Hanging in the balance in the next year or two: issues such as whether to expand the number of black bears that can be killed every year by California hunters, whether to ban lead shot or whether to offer state endangered-species protections to wolves.

 

If Richards leaves, the vice president of the commission, Mike Sutton, would become president. Sutton is a former national park ranger and biologist who works at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 

"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."

[Tines]

Just when I thought California couldn't be any more irrational....

[ShutYourLib]

Wonder if any of those MORONS have ever went to Vegas.

[DesertBull]

Thumbing their noses at the will of the people.

 

You've got to be kidding. These are the same people that try to go around the gay marriage ban that the voters of California passed on multiple occasions.

[gotcoues]

News Flash..... ALL CONSERVATIVES, LIBERTARIANS, AND RIGHT LEANING INDEPENDENTS LEAVE CALIFORNIA NOW! Get out while you still can, there its no hope. California has been lost. Let all the liberals, greenies, and illegals have the state. You can't always stop a sinking ship!

 

I have vowed never to take my family to Cali ever again after their calls for a boycott of AZ.

[Chef]

Of course he repects the laws of California. That's why he hunted and killed a mountain lion in IDAHO! Bottom line, the Democrats want that seat.

[CouesWhitetail]

Wow, that is crazy....

[bear402]

News Flash..... ALL CONSERVATIVES, LIBERTARIANS, AND RIGHT LEANING INDEPENDENTS LEAVE CALIFORNIA NOW! Get out while you still can, there its no hope. California has been lost. Let all the liberals, greenies, and illegals have the state. You can't always stop a sinking ship!

 

I have vowed never to take my family to Cali ever again after their calls for a boycott of AZ.

 

 

If only I could afford to move out of this crazy state ! I'd be gone in a heartbeat. Gov Jerry Brown and the rest of those crazy Democrats in the legislature sure don't represent me !

 

Help MEeeeeeeeeee, I'm on a sinking ship !!!!!!

 

I just hope it goes down when I'm hunting in Arizona or Colorado !

[azmetalman]

"Your actions raise serious questions about whether you respect the laws of the people of California and whether you are fit to adequately enforce those laws," the letter from the Assembly Democrats said.

 

The truth of their thinking is contained in the quote above which is taken from Bill's post. PETA is the ruling party in California. Democracy to them is a word from a foreign language which they do not understand. They believe that a law passed in California becomes the law of the land.

Why would anyone of sound mind and conscience want to live in California today?

[scoutm]

What really sucks is there is no way the Feds will ever let California sink and all of us will be paying to bail them out and we will be paying for their failed liberal agenda for the rest of our lives.

 

 

[Non-Typical Solutions]

None if it makes any sense.......what is the question???? What is the problem, the guy went hunting, what if he went deep sea fishing?????? Long as he has a tag and license......oh, just forget it...........dumb and dumber...

[billrquimby]

The scary part of this story is that history has shown that as California goes, so will Arizona eventually. We used to be a rural state, but no more. Of the nearly 6.5 million people the Census Bureau counted in our state recently, two thirds live in the cities of Maricopa and Pima counties.

 

Bill Quimby

[billrquimby]

There are a lot of city folk who are hard core outdoorsman too! Problem is the majority let the few have control. California isnt too bad except for san francisco. A lot of the southern california guys like hunting and fishing too. But the libtrards in san fran push their agenda until it is approved. Get rid of san fran and it might not be too bad. Maybe another earthquake???

 

 

Nosjapo:

 

Unfortunately, although many hunters live in cities, they (and those who support what we do) no longer are a majority in this state or in California.

 

Whether hunting continues ultimately will be decided by folks in cities who are so far removed from the outdoors and rural life that most have never seen a chicken plucked or a deer cut into steaks and roasts. To them, bacon was immaculately conceived in packages.

 

Believe it or not, a lot of them have never thought about where their leather shoes, belts and purses, even their hamburgers, originated.

 

Incidentally, please don't wish for another big earthquake in San Francisco. My granddaughter and traveling buddy is a university professor there, and she definitely is not opposed to hunting,

 

Bill Quimby

[billrquimby]

Nosajpo:

 

Wish I were as optimistic as you, but there are only 23 million to 44 million hunters, depending upon who does the counting, and close to 313 million people in this country. And our numbers are not keeping pace with population growth.

 

With 269 million to 290 million Americans now who have not hunted and never will, we represent only about 7% to 14% of the population and are vastly outnumbered. When those percentages shrink to 3% to 7%, which is inevitable given the human propensity to procreate, hunting will be in seriously deep doo doo.

 

And, yes, law-abiding citizens will have no choice but to take it when hunting is banned by popular vote or by politicians such as those in California.

 

At first, there may be some like you who will ignore laws and continue hunting. Eventually, though, public opinion will equate killing a wild animal to the murder of a human and demand penalties to reflect that thinking. A twenty years to life sentence for killing a deer would make even the most avid hunter think twice before poaching.

 

We will not lose hunting in what little is left of my lifetime, or perhaps even yours, but it is doomed as we know it.

 

Fortunately for us, it will happen gradually, starting as it did in California, with banning the hunting of a single species, such as mountain lions, without any scientific reason to do so. Next might come bans on hunting bighorns, mountain goats, bears, pronghorn antelope or the rarer species of waterfowl.

 

Species that are widespread and numerous, such as deer and elk, will be among the last to be totally protected.

 

Trappers and houndsmen at one time thought what they do would never be seriously threatened, but just look at the laws that various western states (including Arizona) have passed in the last twenty years. More restrictions will surely come in the next twenty years.

 

As for controlling wildlife numbers, that can be done more efficiently by professional cullers (as is already being done in some places in southern Africa) but the public will demand that culling be used only when absolutely necessary and only after all efforts to transplant and sterilize animals -- or introduce predators -- have been tried and failed.

 

There will be delays caused by trying and failing, of course, and wildlife control ultimately will be done as it was done before Europeans reached this continent -- by starvation and disease or a similar crisis.

 

Bill Quimby

[ThomC]

News Flash..... ALL CONSERVATIVES, LIBERTARIANS, AND RIGHT LEANING INDEPENDENTS LEAVE CALIFORNIA NOW! Get out while you still can, there its no hope. California has been lost. Let all the liberals, greenies, and illegals have the state. You can't always stop a sinking ship!

 

I have vowed never to take my family to Cali ever again after their calls for a boycott of AZ.

 

But, dont come to Arizona.