With barely 20 Pumas having a tenuous toehold in Nebraska, it is truly outrageous that State Senator LeRoy Louden wants to institute a trophy hunting season on the Cats.........How do you hunt "ghosts"??????.......Is the Senator insane in his seeking to create a spiral of death before this trophic carninvore has had a chance to recover in his State?.......He is the same Senator who in 2010 passed a bill that labels Pumas predators and therefore able to be killed by property owners for any reason...............There is still time to kill his trophy season call to arms...............Contact the Nebraska Legislature and urge them to defeat LB 928(Pumas can be hunted for sport bill)

Nebraska Senator Introduces Bill to Trophy Hunt Lions

Last month, one of Nebraska's rare mountain  lions had to be euthanized after sustaining severe injuries from being  caught in a steel-jawed leg hold trap.  She was one of only a handful of  female lions believed to live in the state.  In a population of just  twenty cats, breeding-aged females play a crucial role. Residents saw  this loss as a huge setback in the species' recovery, with many wanting a  statewide ban on the traps and an increase in protection laws for  mountain lions.  State Senator LeRoy Louden, however, has continued his  push to kill off the cats. 

 In  2010 Senator Louden introduced a bill to reclassify mountain lions as  "predators" (on the same list as opossums, coyotes, and skunks, among  other "unwanted animals") and to allow ranchers to freely kill mountain  lions on their property without needing permits or having to contact the  game agency first (more).  It passed.  Now, Senator Louden is taking it one step further with Legislative Bill 928.   If passed, LB 928 would allow the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission  to open an annual trophy hunting season on mountain lions.

 The public and even some Game & Parks employees are shaking their  heads, saying it's far too soon to think about allowing the public to  kill the cats for fun.  There are only twenty lions after all, and less  than 5% of Nebraska residents are hunters--with just a fraction of those  interested in hunting a big game species.

 There is a massive pile of  actual important issues the Senator should be focusing on such as job  creation which, along with child welfare reform, are stated on his  website as being the "top priorities in this year's session."  By  instead trying to push a bill that would promote the extermination of a  species (and one that should currently be listed as state-endangered)  Senator Louden is not only wasting time and resources, but he is showing  a blatant disregard for the views of the people he was elected to  represent.  But then again, perhaps he is looking out for the public welfare... he felt it was necessary to write into law that a lion hunting tag shall not exceed $25.  My, how nice of him!

 If you are also outraged by LB 928, please take a moment to share your thoughts with the Nebraska Legislature.  Remind them that this bill is unnecessary and that the majority of residents do not want Nebraska's lions hunted for sport.