Game Commission to hear proposed hunting changes

Santa Fe New Mexican - The New Mexico Game Commission will consider changes to bear and cougar hunting rules at a public meeting in Gallup on Thursday. Rick Winslow, the Game and Fish Department's large-carnivore biologist, will make a case for allowing yearlong cougar hunting and increasing the annual cougar bag limit to two per hunter. He'll also ask the commission to count only bears and cougars killed by hunters toward the harvest limit, and not animals killed by vehicles or those shot by game wardens. Phil Carter, spokesman for Animal Protection of New Mexico, said the department can't prove bear and cougar population estimates and believes the counts are too high. Three years ago, the animal-rights group fought the department over plans to greatly increase cougar hunting. "Game and Fish has taken anything but a conservative approach to cougar and bear hunting," he said. Gary Webb, an outfitter and guide in southwestern New Mexico for the last 30 years, said he thinks the amendments are good, although he and another outfitters see little need to increase the cougar bag limit to two per hunter. They said most of the hunters they guide would only be interested in one cougar a year. Winslow said he knows some people who think the department should take a hands-off approach to managing bears and cougars. "Letting nature take its course means no management," Winslow said. "You're going to end up with disease. You're going to end up with animals pushed out of habitat. You're going to end up with more human interactions with bears and cougars, and more dead animals."  Read More News New Mexico

Game Commission to hear proposed hunting changes