MAGA Controlled Wyoming Legislature Proposes Open Season on Mountain Lions and Grizzly Bears

Jonathan Ratner

The Wyoming MAGA contingent that now controls the full legislature introduced

House Bill 0286, a proposed bill that would strip critical protections for cougars in Wyoming.

HB 0286 proposes the following changes:


● Elimination of hunting zones and geographic boundaries for cougars.
● Removal of statewide and local mortality limits, allowing unrestricted killing of cougars at any time, by any means.
● Authorization of cougar trapping and snaring, practices that are neither selective nor humane.
● Remove existing revenue stream from Wyoming Game & Fish Department with broad allowances for hunting cougars with other game licenses, such as antelope, deer, or elk licenses, bypassing the requirement for a dedicated cougar license.  

You can find more information here and from the Cougar Fund here.

This same MAGA contingent has proposed in House Bill 0286 giving every hunter a stamp to kill as many grizzly bears as they wish outside the Yellowstone recovery area.

The folks at WyoFile just published an article on this.

UPDATE: Just as we were about to publish, we got news from WyoFile that the hearing on the kill mountain lions anywhere/anytime bill that even organizations who the bill’s sponsors probably thought would be lovers of the bill came out against it.

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Comments

  1. Ida Lupine Avatar
    Ida Lupine

    Just look at that beautiful face!

    These people think that because Trump is in office, he’s going to grant their wish list. I wouldn’t be so sure.

    They seem to enjoy insulting people’s intelligence, because they have none.

    Reply
  2. ChicoRey Avatar
    ChicoRey

    I completely agree, Ida.
    And apparently so do the people who openly opposed it!
    Good!

    Reply
    1. Ida Lupine Avatar
      Ida Lupine

      Yes, thanks!

      Reply
  3. Jeff Hoffman Avatar
    Jeff Hoffman

    Wyoming has always been anti-wildlife. Just consider Alan Simpson and Dick Cheney. This state is run by ranchers and the oil industry, and wildlife gets in the way of their profits.

    Reply
  4. Ida Lupine Avatar
    Ida Lupine

    I don’t even dare ask about the wolves. That paragon of scientific knowledge Lauren Boebert is co-authoring a delisting bill with Tom Tiffany of WI (of course!), with exemption from judicial review just as they did in 2011:

    https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/jackson_hole_daily/state_and_regional/burgum-backs-grizzly-delisting-questions-reliability-of-renewable-power/article_0a01a1c4-e4cd-51a1-b2d2-b6cc520f6b73.html

    Reply
  5. Bruce Bowen Avatar
    Bruce Bowen

    The reason is $$$$$$. Wyoming has more types of licenses and hunting and fishing tags than one can imagine.

    Grizzly bear tags were selling for $6000 for non-resident hunters and $600 for residents and I expect the price will go up.

    The sale of fur pelts/skins is also legal and encouraged in Wyoming. Getting any compassion for wildlife in Wyoming is like trying to get blood out of a ball bearing.

    Reply
    1. Ida Lupine Avatar
      Ida Lupine

      It’s going to be terrible for the grizzlies too. Have they even appointed a Director of US Fish & Wildlife yet? I wish people would care enough to vote to enshrine protections for our wild lands and wildlife as much as they do their own rights.

      Reply
  6. Ida Lupine Avatar
    Ida Lupine

    The president has nominated Brian Nesvik, the former Game & Fish director for Wyoming. He had retired shortly after, but he was the acting director during the Cody Roberts debacle. On the plus side he has been supportive of wildlife crossing. I haven’t heard very much from the Interior Dept by anyone on that much. Perhaps some good can come of it. I’d also like to see a buffer around Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

    Could this mean that running down wildlife with snowmobiles could be make illegal at the Federal level? I can dream.

    How can anybody seriously hold that up as legitimate?

    Reply
    1. Ida Lupine Avatar
      Ida Lupine

      ^^sorry, nominated for Director of US F&W.

      Reply
  7. Ida Lupine Avatar
    Ida Lupine

    However, this one doesn’t bode well at all:

    Kathleen Sgamma, the President of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, has been nominated as Bureau of Land Management Director.

    Reply

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Author
Jonathan Ratner
Jonathan@Wild-Sage.org | Website

Jonathan Ratner has been in the trenches of public lands conservation for nearly 25 years. He started out doing forest carnivore work for the Forest Service, BLM, and the Inter-agency Grizzly Bear Study Team, with some Wilderness Rangering on the Pinedale Ranger District. That work lead him directly to deal with the gross corruption within the federal agencies' range program.

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