Carnivores slaughtered

Thismonth Montana’s Fish and Wildlife Commission moved to sharply increase the kill of mountain lions in the state, up to 40 percent of the population in many areas. The move came over the objections of mountain lion hound hunters, sporting groups, and conservation interests. FWP Biologists did not support this increase. The Commission’s justification was that mountain lions are killing too many big game species and action is needed to recover these populations.

abundant big game, and our Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department and Legislature are implementing policies to kill far more deer and elk.

Valley Views

In recent years Montana added the ability to kill three elk per year, special seasons, and expanded early and late seasons onto public lands. There is a disconnect between Gianforte’s rhetoric and reality, which begs the question, what’s going on with Montana’s management of wildlife – all wildlife?

This has resulted in some of the most disgraceful, unethical, and unsporting practices designed to slaughter these species, which are part of our wildlife heritage and valued by Montanans.

For wolves, night shooting, baiting, and snaring is legal. We have massive bag limits, and we’ve gone down the early 20th Century route of paying bounties through a group profiting from those bounties in several states, including with public money.

If this sounds familiar, it is. For over two years The Gianforte administration has waged war on carnivore species, wolves, bears, and now mountain lions, under the facade of caring about public hunters and wildlife.

In truth, Montana has see page 12

Gianforte and his hand-picked Commission have followed suit with other Western states playing the “predator card” as the solution to every wildlife issue. Under the guise of “wildlife management” they change the system to support the killing of more wolves, bears, and lions with the justification that the hunting will be great.

But what Montana hunters, and all Montanans, don’t see is how these policies play into the commercialization of their wildlife.

In Utah, groups like Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Big Game Forever are fronts that have taken millions of hunter dollars through auction licenses and public payouts, all while promoting their anti-wolf and bear stances.