Our friend Helen McGinnis of Eastern Cougar Foundation responding to recently posted article on Cougar hunting methods in South Dakota--Unfortunately for our Lions, "CATCH AND RELEASE" found so satisfying by many fisherman does not seem to be the goal of Mountain Lion hunters and State Fish and Game Boards...............especially lousy in South Dakota as this State is now the Eastern Frontier as it relates to Cougars.................the State that further dispersal and colonization East can stem from if enough lions are allowed to breed and ultimately have their offspring migrate into new unclaimed territory all the way to the Mississippi and beyond

-----Original Message-----
From: Helen McGinnis [mailto:HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 10:35 AM
To: Meril, Rick
Subject: Re: Coyotes,Wolves,Cougars..forever!

Hound hunting is the best method of managing cougars for sustained sport hunting because hunters can see their quarry close up before they decide to kill it or not.  In Colorado & Montana, cougar hunters must take an online course in sexing cougars before getting a cougar hunting license.  (Females can easily be confused with young males.)  If the goal is to maintain a continual supply of cougars for sportsmen, females should not be killed because most of them are either pregnant or rearing kittens, which stay with their mothers for a year and a half.  When a female is treed, houndsmen usually can determine if a female is lactating by looking at her nipples.
An even more sustainable method of cougar hunting is catch & release hunting.  The hounds tree a cougar, the hunters take photographs of the treed cougar, and then they leave so that someone else can have the pleasure of the chase at some future date.

Unfortunately, the main goal of the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks is to reduce the cougar population, not sport hunting of cougars.