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| California Fish and Game President showing off his mountain lion kill. |
California Fish
& Game President, Please Step Down
By Diana L.
Chapman
California
Fish and Game president Dan Richards pressed more than many of our buttons here
when he appeared to boast of hunting and killing a magnificent mountain lion in
Idaho, verified in a photograph that spread faster than fire across the
internet.
He proudly
kneeled in his January hunt next to the 3-year-old, now dead puma, big smile on
his face -- in sort of a screw-you-California stance. You are idiots here in
the Golden State. But Idaho is much smarter; hunting the big cats there remains legal. So
that's what he did while representing us.
He shot the
puma and later ate its meat.
As huge stories washed across the nation, the Trayvon Martin
killing, the secret service gone wild and the government's general services
frivolously spending our money to make whacky videos, Richard's hunting
escapade took a back seat. We slowly began to let what he did fade.
We should not let this issues escape us for a moment, because
what we have now I consider akin to
having a wolf guard the hen house or an aquarium director dropping a shark in
the same tank with endangered fish. That fails to detail his absolutely
preposterous arrogance and refusal to leave the post.
"While I respect our Fish and Game rules and regulations
(are
you sure?), my 100 percent legal activity outside of California, or
anyone else's for that matter, is none of your business," Richards wrote
to our politicians.
Really?
He must be joking. Doesn't he realize that when our then Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him (and we all know how well that muscle-less
leader did for our state) that Richards is not in a private position, but in an
ever-so-public one.
So yes, it is our business and it should continue to be our
business until he quits the post. Richards needs to vacate, because he's been
given a precious task as the guardian managing our wildlife and fish resources.
That involves not only our future, but the future of generations to come.
And yet it's so apparent that there's a great chasm between
Richard's philosophy and that of California's - a state that banned cougar
hunting starting when Governor Ronald Reagan made it illegal to hunt pumas in
1972. It received several extensions until voters here extended it permanently in 1990.
More
alarming is that our politicians -- who scrambled and clamored at first calling
for Richard's resignation -- immediately backed away when hunters and gun enthusiasts
built a ground swell of support for the Fish and Game president.
Come on political guys and gals. Have some
guts.
What
Richard's did is not about hunting. It's not about what's legal. It's not even
an issue about guns.
It's truly a
story of Richard's moral compass and about his ethics. That's the crux of the
matter. He represents our state whether he likes it or not. And he was in
violation for taking a $6,800 freebie --
not paying it back until critics vehemently opposed his actions.
Richards, for instance, violated California's laws that
clearly states public officials cannot accept gift more than the $420 limit.
Later, after the media maelstrom-- the president repaid the fee to the Idaho Flying
B Ranch where he was given the initially free guided hunt to catch the cat.
Since he did pay -- albeit later than the 30 days allotted
and likely only prompted by the ire it raised in the media -- the Fair
Political Practices Commission just sent him a stern warning that he was in
violation.
But Californians, we must ask ourselves: is this the man we
want guarding our resources if his ideals don't align with ours? Despite our efforts, we are losing the big
cats still.
At least 11 mountain lions and possibly up to 20 have been
shot and killed illegally up in Tejon Ranch, a vast swath of private land that
rests to the east of Interstate-5.
And while Fish and Game charged the corporation-- which owns
270,000 acres of the California's wild lands-- about $137,000 for killing those
pumas, I am awfully uncomfortable having Richards in charge -- obviously a man
who believes in shooting them for sport.
The Tejon ranchers believed the pumas were killing big game,
such as deer and elk, which competed with the corporation's high-paying private
trophy hunts at the ranch.
State officials need to encourage Richards to leave and then
appoint someone who doesn't believe in cougar hunts and has a willingness to
care for the animals and fish in this state.
Richards then -- can go live and work in Idaho -- and hunt
pumas until his heart is content.
