Judge: Challenge to cougar trapping may proceed
A federal magistrate judge is allowing a lawsuit that asserts a state wildlife agency’s decision to open a cougar trapping season on public lands violates the Endangered Species Act to proceed.
The cougar trapping season, which began Nov. 1 and ends March 31, is the first in nearly 50 years.
Judge Lourdes A. Martinez issued a ruling in favor of local wildlife advocates, The Humane Society of the United States and Animal Protection of New Mexico, which filed the lawsuit in federal court in New Mexico against New Mexico State Game Commissioners and the director of the state Department of Game and Fish.
The commission’s new regulation radically expands cougar trapping on more than 9 million acres of public trust land, including Mexican wolf habitat.
Anna Frostic, senior wildlife attorney for The Humane Society of the United States, said in a prepared statement: “With fewer than 100 Mexican wolves left in the wild, it is of critical importance that the state of New Mexico’s broad expansion of recreational cougar trapping be strictly scrutinized. We are grateful that Judge Martinez will let wildlife advocates have their day in court.”
This federal lawsuit accompanies a separate, but related state court suit filed by Animal Protection of New Mexico, The Humane Society of the United States and several New Mexico citizens earlier this year. That suit challenges the decision to allow cougar trapping and hunting despite the state Department of Game and Fish’s admitted lack of an accurate estimate of the cougar population in New Mexico and the risk cougar traps pose to search and rescue animals, pets and nursing cougar mothers and their kittens.
If either legal challenge succeeds, it will not prevent otherwise lawful hunting of cougars, nor will it affect ranchers’ or state officials’ ability to kill particular cougars that are threatening or attacking farm animals.
