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SALT LAKE CITY Wildlife conservation groups hope to overturn a new state law allowing year-round hunting and trapping of mountain lions, raising concerns about the potential extinction of Utah’s mountain lions.
Local group Western Wildlife Conservancy and Mountain Lion Foundation, based in California, filed a lawsuit in the 3rd Judicial District Court, arguing that House Bill 469 is unconstitutional.
The law came into force last May.
Mountain Lion Hunting in Utah
“This represented a huge change for Utah in the way mountain lions are treated across the state, and we immediately took action to try to determine what we could do to overturn this law ” said R. Brent Lyles, Utah’s executive director. the Mountain Lion Foundation.
The lawsuit says the law restricts the ability of state wildlife management agencies to regulate the killing of cougars.
“The problem here is that this law opens the door to killing every mountain lion in the state, and not just that, but in a ruthless way,” Lyles said.
The defendants in the lawsuit claim that is not the case. In a joint statement, the Department of Natural Resources and the Division of Wildlife Resources said in part:
“When HB0469 took effect on May 3, our division worked to update our regulations and management to be compliant with this new law. Cougars are still classified as protected wildlife in Utah and require a hunting license or a combined license to hunt. All cougars harvested must be registered at a DWR office or with a DWR employee within 48 hours of harvest. Our biologists monitor harvest rates under the new regulations to determine the effects of this new hunting strategy. If it is determined that additional regulations are necessary, these recommendations would be proposed and would be open to public comment.
They declined to comment further due to pending litigation. Despite this, Lyles is confident in his case.
“When we allow not only year-round and unlimited hunting, but also year-round and unlimited trapping, it exponentially increases the risk to mountain lions,” Lyles said. “I think we have a good chance of getting this law back.”
To read more about the lawsuit, a version of the case can be viewed here.
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