BigGameHoundsmen.com

Jason also posted this bill in Legislative issues with no responce. I guess Mountain lion hunting is over in Montana . Don't know why tha Houndsman groups haven't spoke up ?

I have been well aware of this proposal for awhile now. Possibly not everyone understands what exactly it means? What it all comes down to is that lions will be taken off the big game species list and added to the predator list of species rendering a mountain lion not any more than a coyote, yes open season year round without any limits.

I am really confused and have not got all of the info on the bill yet. I was told that a rancher from the Mosby area was responsible for the bill, of wich supposidly has suffer a magnitude of livestock loss due to lion predation. Wendy Warburton of Havre is sponsoring the bill. If anyone feels the need....... please give Wendy a call.

I would only hope that Montana's goverment would laugh at the idea. The amount of tax dollars that have been spent on research projects and also the return of revenue the state FWP receives in licensing fees every year......... ya, let just forget all about that and open season on the lions!

I called around to see if I could get an update on this Bill. A friend of mine in the state legislature told me that he had not even heard of this bill yet, and that unless it was attached to some financing provisions it would not pass. He is going to check on its progress and whether it will even reach the floor and get back to me.

I also called the Montana State Houndsmen Association to see if they were doing something about this bill or if they knew of its progress (cause I was pretty sure they had a war fund for this type of stuff), and they said that they had people on it, but that they were pretty sure that the Bill had not made it out of committee or onto the floor or something along those lines. I was told that even if a debate came up, the FWP is on our side on this issue because of the revenue brought in by tags and licenses. Anyway, I didn't get a lot of info, but I will follow up.

Does any one know the status of this House Bill. Transmital was this friday doid it make it over to the Senate or is it Dead ?

UPDATE:

It appears that a fiscal note was attached to the bill, so it has passed some preliminary hurdles. This bill is currently still in commitee, though, so it has not reached the house floor yet. And even if it gets the vote from the house it will have to clear the senate as well. Although the bill still has a ways to go, I think it would be a good idea to start writing/calling representatives. Most of the ones I have talked to have not even heard of this bill yet . . . it might be good to give them a bad impression of it right off the start. Some good talking points might be all the revenue that would be lost from licenses/tags if this bill were to pass, also the fact that if the bill passed FW&P will not manage lion numbers like they do now (they traditionally don't keep track of predator numbers--especially when there's no revenue--and with no management the FW&P would have no clue where there is an overpopulation or underpopulation of cats), this bill could also result in a population shift from public lands to private ranches, where there is less hunting pressure. Lack of management is bad for everyone, and it makes no sense for the state to throw away money that could be made off tags. For those ranchers that are complaining about lion problems . . . this bill would only help them if they gave hunters free access to their property anyway (and if hunters already have free access to their property then this bill is probably not needed because I doubt they would have a problems with lions killing calves). Anyway, enough rambling . . . everyone can follow the bill using one of the links below:

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/LAW0203W$ ... TY_ID_SEQ=

or

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/law0203w$.startup

HB 578 is still alive. It has not been to a hearing yet. We need to watch for the hearing date and kill it there.

HB 578 go to the floor on Thursday March 10. Anyone with any concerns should make comments now. Hopefully the bill will not go any futher than the House but it's not worth it to sit around to wait and see!!

Another point........ if somthing like this becomes law, do you ever think the animal activist will ever let us live it down and give us credit on managing other predators.........hmm.....like wolves?

Get involved!!

Representative Jonathan McNiven of HD 44 says that he will go to bat for us. I helped him with his campaign and he is a good friend of mine. McNiven told me that he has already talked to members of the house to downturn this bill when it pops up. He says that if we watch for a date when it is scheduled to come to the house floor then we should let him know; he can gain a lot of last-minute support in the preceding days while reps are deciding how to vote. He gave me the impression that there are plenty who seem willing to help resist this bill because "it's in the best interest of Montana's sportsmen." McNiven said that he will debate it hard if it does reach the floor.

By the way, I think the March 10 hearing date was cancelled, let me know if I'm wrong.

Sweet theres always a catch

Sorry, my last post I wrote 578, I meant 576.

Anyway yes, held off until 3-17.

The hearing for HB 576, reclassifying the mountain lion as a predator in Montana, has been rescheduled for next Thursday, March 17, at 3:00 pm in Helena. It's hard to imagine after all our work getting a great quota system in place to protect lion pursuit with hounds that a bill like this is trying to advance. It will, too, if we don't fight it! One additional thing to note when garnering support to fight this bill - Boone and Crockett has a long history of not registering lion skulls from states who treat cougars as predators without big game regulations. Write your legislators, talk to your friends, and send letters to the editor and we can try to stop this quickly. It made it to bill form without dying in committee so someone thinks it has merit.

HB-576 will be heard Thurday March 17th at 3:00 pm in room 152. Don't be late or think it can't happen.

Talked to my dad whos in the legislature he said he has talked to representitives to get this shot down and will keep working to kill this legislation

Is anyone here able to make it on Thursday that could give us a report?