NM Game Commission considers proposal for cougar trapping

A proposal to allow New Mexico hunters to use traps to kill mountain lions has sparked strong opposition from environmental and animal protection groups. The Game Commission will begin studying the trapping plan – and other proposed changes to cougar and bear hunting rules – at a meeting in Farmington next week. Five public meetings around the state also will be held on the idea over the next month. But a coalition of environmental groups is already speaking out, with eight organizations signing onto a letter sent Friday that urged game commissioners to reject the cougar trapping plan. “Allowing traps for cougars, in addition to all the traps that are now allowed to be scattered across public land for other species, would be irresponsible,” said Mary Katherine Ray, the wildlife chairwoman for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. The Game and Fish Department, which is proposing the new hunting rules for mountain lions and bears, described the trapping proposal on its website as one of several “initial ideas” the agency is considering. Currently, New Mexico hunters with a special cougar license can use rifles, handguns or bow and arrow to hunt mountain lions year-round. Trapping is not allowed, except on private land with permission from the Game and Fish Department. In all, the agency allows for about 750 mountain lions to be killed in the state each year, but it says only about 30 percent of that number – roughly 225 animals – are actually shot by hunters. The cougar population in New Mexico is estimated to be between 3,000 and 4,500. Under the proposed rule change, traps and snares would be allowable on public land in certain cougar management zones in which the annual hunting limit has not been met, according to the Game and Fish Department...more