TELL THE SOUTH DAKOTA GAME GOMMISSIONERS NOT TO EXPAND THE QUOTA OF PUMAS THAT CAN BE KILLED IN THE BLACK HILLS---OUR FRIEND HELEN MCGINNIS URGING EVERYONE TO EMAIL THOSE COMMISIONERS AT wildinfo@state.sd.us BEFORE NOON THURSDAY OF THIS WEEK, OCTOBER 4!..........CRITICAL TO DO THIS TO ALLOW PUMAS TO DISPERSE OUT OF THE DAKOTAS INTO WAITING AVAILABLE HABITAT IN THE MIDWEST AND BEYOND

PETITION TO STOP THE INCREASE OF PUMA HUNTING IN THE SOUTH DAKOTA BLACK HILLS

Will cougars ever recolonize the Midwest and East?  Perhaps not, if the South Dakota game Commissioners approve a significantly larger cougar hunting quota for the Black Hills this Thursday, October 4th.

The Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming have been the principal source of the young male cougars that are being documented from time to time in the Midwest.  One made it all the way to Connecticut in June 2011.  This trickle of dispersers could be cut off if the Commissioners of the South Dakota Department of Game, Fisheries and Parks raise the hunting quota in their section of the Black Hills to 100 in the 2013 season.  The female subquota would be 70.  The slaughter would be in addition to more than 60 that will be killed in the Wyoming portion of the Black Hills.  The goal is to make the Black Hills a population "sink," where deaths outnumber births and immigration.

Even worse from the standpoint of those of us who want to see cougars recolonize, year-round recreational hunting by licensed hunters would be legalized in the rest of South Dakota--the prairies.  Any surviving cougars in the Black Hills could legally be shot down when they leave for any reason, never reaching the Midwest, let alone the East.

What can you do?  Email your comments to the South Dakota Commission before noon, October 4th - wildinfo@state.sd.us. 

1. Object to the proposed increase in the mountain lion hunting season quota for 2013

2. Object to the use of hounds for hunting in Custer State Park

3. Object to an unlimited quota for recreational (trophy) lion hunts in the prairie

4. Request that the Black Hills Population be managed as a "source" or "stable" lion population, NOT A "SINK".

Do it now....