HB 1124 ( hound hunting of cougars) out of committee

[Humptulips]

I see HB1124 has been voted out of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. It has now moved on to the rules committee. It received a Do Pass recommendation from the committee on a 8 to 4 vote.
Another round of phone calls would help.

[bearpaw]

This shows how the Natural Resources committee voted:

Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass
Signed by Representatives Blake, Chair; Chandler, Ranking Minority Member; Wilcox, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Buys, Hinkle, Kretz, Orcutt, Pettigrew, and Rolfes.

Minority Report: Do not pass
Signed by Representatives Stanford, Vice Chair; Dunshee, Lytton, and Van De Wege.

[Kain]

Humane Society likes a pursuit only season.    Time to implement them for the whole state, you know to make HSUS happy. 

http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/predator-hunting/articlecontent/2/2011/1777/washington-bill-aims-to-allow-cougar-hunting-with-hounds

Fifteen years after Washington voters banned using dogs to hunt cougars, lawmakers want to set permanent hunting seasons allowing licensed hunters to use hounds to track the cats.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Fifteen years after Washington voters banned using dogs to hunt cougars, lawmakers want to set permanent hunting seasons allowing licensed hunters to use hounds to track the cats.

The proposed bill, sponsored by Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, is the latest step in a seven-year process of chipping away at the 1996 ban through a pilot program aimed at testing cougar hunting seasons with dogs.

The original three-year program has been extended twice so far.

Representatives from the Fish and Wildlife Commission say the pilot program has resulted in a 75 percent decline in confirmed complaints about cougars killing pets or livestock, or causing other problems.

Still, opponents of the bill say the use of hounds is cruel and inhumane, and is not being limited to public safety concerns.

"Essentially, we're concerned that this is going to allow sport hunters to use this as an excuse'' for using dogs, said Jennifer Hillman, western regional director of the Humane Society of the United States.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission established the pilot program in 2004 and extended it through 2011 to protect public safety and manage cougar populations in six affected counties.

The bill would essentially make it permanent by letting the commission determine cougar hunting seasons, set quotas on cougar kills and decide who is permitted to hunt cougars, be it licensed hunters, state agents or contracted hunters.

Statewide Initiative 655 passed in 1996, prohibiting the use of dogs in cougar hunting but allowing exemptions for public safety and livestock depredation incidents.

"We want to make sure that the integrity of what the initiative proposed — and what was passed — is maintained,'' Hillman said.

Hillman's concerns about sport hunting involve companies that offer guided cougar hunts at a cost. The commerce attached to it, she said, shows that cougar hunting is used for more than just public safety.

Representatives from Fish and Wildlife, however, say they use hounds to exert better control aimed at creating healthy, stable cougar populations.

Donny Martorello, a section manager for the agency, said hunters are most likely to take young female cougars due to population demographics. Such uneven pressure on females is risky for population management, he said.

Dogs tree cougars and give hunters time to identify the sex and age of the cats. Because Fish and Wildlife sets seasonal quotas on how many female and male cougars can be killed, the use of hounds helps balance the harvests, Martorello said.

Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, and Pend Oreille counties were included in the original pilot program. In the extension, Klickitat County requested to opt-in as well. Blake's current bill would allow for similar opt-in requests when cougar populations exceed a community's tolerance.

Hillman said the Humane Society advocates using dogs in a non-lethal way, to teach cougars what areas to avoid, because "we live in a state where cougars are indigenous, where cougars exist with humans.''

Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, has proposed an amendment to the bill that would only allow for another three-year extension of the pilot program, rather than make it permanent.

With the passage of Initiative 655, "the people clearly said we don't want dogs used to run down creatures. It's always good to check back in,'' he said.

Blake said his main objective is to restore population management tools to wildlife professionals. Using dogs will also help teach cougars to stay away from urban areas.

"I think I would rather save lives ahead of time and use this program to manage the population and teach cougars that humans and dogs are something they don't want to be around,'' he said.

Pilot program cougar harvests averaged 42 cats a year, far below the average number of cougars killed in the regular season as game animals.

Cougar kills in livestock and pet depredation circumstances also factor into total harvest, which has been about 200 cats annually since the program began.

[bearpaw]

In the letters I wrote, I stressed heavily the need for pursuit hunting. I think the legislators understand the reason too, my fingers are crossed.

[Rooster1981]

In the letters I wrote, I stressed heavily the need for pursuit hunting. I think the legislators understand the reason too, my fingers are crossed.

Mine as well

[bearpaw]

The chair of the House Natural Resources Committee (Brian Blake - Democrat) is one of the best friends that hunters have in Olympia. I think he is from Aberdeen, you guys who live in his district need to keep voting him in. 

[Bigshooter]

The chair of the House Natural Resources Committee (Brian Blake - Democrat) is one of the best friends that hunters have in Olympia. I think he is from Aberdeen, you guys who live in his district need to keep voting him in. 

Once every 3rd or 4th blue moon you find a democrat worth voting for.   

[bearpaw]

I am a conservative type person, but I recognize the fact that if all hunters were Republicans, hunters would lose opportunities. I thank god for all the democrats who are hunters and who will stand up for hunters. 

[Cougeyes]

Saw this on the Conservation Northwest Website in relation to this bill: 

Support Sound Management of Washington's Cougars
Urge state lawmakers to oppose a bill that substitutes scare tactics for best available science

The use of hounds for sport hunting of cougars was banned in 1996 when Washington citizens passed Initiative 655 with 63% of the popular vote. In 2008, a poll by WDFW found 92% of citizens agree that, "Cougars are an important and essential component of Washington ecosystems." Now, a bill in the Washington State Legislature proposes to overturn that vote by granting the Department of Fish and Wildlife authority to permit sport hunting of cougars with hounds.

Present management of the state's cougars is far from perfect, so the legislature's interest is welcome. But the present debate is tarnished by scare tactics, fear, and misinformation, which some legislators use, with public safety as the guise, to whip up their base and polarize wildlife management. Cougar attacks are rare, and there is evidence that sport hunting, with or without hounds, is as likely to increase problems as reduce them. Moreover, the Department already has (and exercises) the authority to use hounds and other means to eliminate problem cougars.

Please take action today to defeat this misguided bill! Urge your legislators to oppose HB 1124. Cougar management should be informed by best available science, ensuring that healthy cougar populations serving their ecological role in Washington.

Conservation Northwest supports hunting and other forms of science-based, wildlife management. But we are concerned about wildlife management based on politics and special interests instead of sound science, and we object to levels of hunting that imperil cougar populations or diminish their critical ecological role.

[sakoshooter]

I am a conservative type person, but I recognize the fact that if all hunters were Republicans, hunters would lose opportunities. I thank god for all the democrats who are hunters and who will stand up for hunters. 

I'll second that Bearpaw.

[bearhunter99]

Saw this on the Conservation Northwest Website in relation to this bill: 


Please take action today to defeat this misguided bill! Urge your legislators to oppose HB 1124. Cougar management should be informed by best available science, ensuring that healthy cougar populations serving their ecological role in Washington.

Conservation Northwest supports hunting and other forms of science-based, wildlife management. But we are concerned about wildlife management based on politics and special interests instead of sound science, and we object to levels of hunting that imperil cougar populations or diminish their critical ecological role.

Best available science?  These A$$hats can't figure out that the Fish and Game bioligists are doing just that?  It was wildlife management based on politics and special interests that got the hound hunting banned in the first place, there never has been any proof by the nutjobs that hound hunting is detrimental to the population.  I do find it funny that the numnuts think a pursuit season is ok, its just isn't ok to shoot them.  It is the most humane way to dispatch a cougar because the shots are all close and the hunter has time to make a clean ethical shot.

[WAcoyotehunter]

It's funny conservation northwest talks about "scare tactics" considering all the emotional appeals that the antis used to get hound hunting made illegal.  What a shame.

[Elkaholic daWg]

   
"bill that substitutes scare tactics for best available science"....do you suppose the voters of pugetropolis studied the "best available science" for weeks before they voted on the initiative to ban hound hunting?? And THESE douschbags have the arrogance to call this bill politics and special interests!

[Rooster1981]

   
"bill that substitutes scare tactics for best available science"....do you suppose the voters of pugetropolis studied the "best available science" for weeks before they voted on the initiative to ban hound hunting?? And THESE douschbags have the arrogance to call this bill politics and special interests!

The Antis will say or do anything for there agenda. Does anyone remember the adds from the antis before the vote in 1996. On king5 the anti's had a video of hound hunter shooting a small bear with a bow, and they called it poaching. When that bear was killed in bc.
         Stand United or fall apart!!!