LB836 (formerly LB747) allows killing mountain lions, bobcats, and other "predatory" animals

LB747 is modified and converted into an amendment to LB836 on 03-04-2010

LB836 passed final reading on 03-30-2010 (with no debate), and went to the Governor for signature

LB836 was signed by the Governor on 04-05-2010

LB747 may be of interest to readers of this website. It has to do with the legal protection given to cougars, bobcats, and several other animal species in Nebraska.

Cougars originally ranged over all of North America when European settlers first arrived, so Nebraska was originally all part of the cougar’s native habitat. But by 1900 mountain lions had been completely wiped out in the state. Recently (since 1991) there have been increasing numbers of confirmed evidence of cougars either living in or passing through Nebraska. This evidence ranges from cougars being killed (sometimes being shot, and sometimes getting hit on highways) to confirmed cougar tracks.

So the mountain lion is trying to make a comeback in part of its former native habitat.

Nebraska LB747 was introduced by Senator Louden (who represents people in the northwestern corner of the state, adjoining the Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming—both states having known mountain lion populations) in response to complaints from constituents about cougars. His constituents are claiming they’ve lost livestock to cougar depredation.

Proponents of this bill claim that it codifies the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s current policy for handling reported mountain lion incidents. Right now, a cougar can be killed (without a permit) only if it’s caught in the act of attacking or eating livestock, or if it’s attacking a person. But if the livestock depredation is already done and the cougar has left, a permit must be obtained from the Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) before hunting the cougar.

The Game and Parks Commission currently investigates every instance of claimed mountain lion depredation, and if there is any doubt as to whether a cougar did it, or not, no permit is issued. So it needs to be a pretty sure thing that the killing was due to a cougar, or else they do not issue a permit to kill the cat.

But a careful reading of Nebraska LB747 reveals what it will really do.

First, it defines 11 species to be considered "predators" (Page 2, Lines 10-12):
"Sec. 3. Predator means a badger, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, long-tailed weasel, mink, mountain lion, opossum, raccoon, red fox, or skunk."

Then it gives ranchers and farmers license to kill any "predator" without a permit from the NGPC (Page 2, Lines 15-19):
"37-559 (1) Any farmer or rancher owning or operating a farm or ranch may destroy or have destroyed any predator preying on livestock or poultry or causing other agricultural depredation on land owned or controlled by him or her without a permit issued by the commission."

The above two sections are the most troublesome. They define a cougar as a “predator” right along with 10 other species (none of which have populations in Nebraska that are recovering from having been completely wiped-out in the state like the cougar), and then state that any “predator” can be killed without a permit if it causes depredation.

But it is also completely counter to later provisions in the same bill (that require a permit before killing a cougar under most circumstances)—an ambiguity that will lead to problems when the NGPC is later charged with enforcing the law if it’s passed in its current form. This ambiguity alone makes this bill a very bad piece of legislation.

Defining all these species as predators and then allowing them to be destroyed at the farmer’s or rancher’s discretion without any oversight from the Game and Parks Commission is essentially relegating them all to the status of vermin that can be hunted at-will.

What will happen if LB747 is passed:
Let’s assume for a moment that LB747 is passed and signed into law, and then the Game and Parks Commission arrests someone for having shot a mountain lion without a permit under section 5 of the bill.

If the defendant claims
A) that a mountain lion is a predator (citing section 3), and
B) that it was depredating on his property; (for which the law requires no proof or confirmation)
then he can then claim that section 4.1 (lines 15-19 on page 2 of the bill) applies to his killing of the mountain lion.

That section clearly states that he can kill ANY of the defined predators causing depredation on his property WITHOUT a permit issued by the Commission. There is nothing else in the bill that would prevent this interpretation. The offender will have a “get out of jail free” pass, and the Commission will be unable to do anything to protect mountain lions in the state of Nebraska.

The wording of this bill will result in NO protection for mountain lions at all—it will NOT implement Game and Parks’ current policy, which does try to protect the mountain lion while balancing it with agricultural interests.

“stalking”
There are more problems with the bill: the second being all the places where the word “stalking” is used to grant permission to kill a mountain lion:
1) allows the killing of a mountain lion on-the-spot (without a permit) if it is stalking someone’s livestock, and
2) allows defense against a mountain lion if it stalks a person.

It was clear from the comments at the Natural Resources Committee hearing that everyone does not understand exactly what “stalking” actually is. So this is clearly a confusing term to use in a law unless the law defines it. “Stalking” will mean one thing to an experienced Game and Parks employee and something completely different to a housewife who’s never even lived with a domestic cat. And we’re going to allow people to kill a cougar solely on the basis of any individual (regardless of his/her training, knowledge, or experience) claiming that the cat was “stalking” someone or something?

“unprovoked aggression”
This bill also allows anyone to “defend” themselves from any mountain lion that shows “unprovoked aggression.” We don’t even allow this level of protection against vicious dogs—the dog’s actions are only punishable by law if/when it actually attacks or bites someone. If it’s just posturing and growling, no harm comes to it. There have only been about 20 people killed by mountain lions in the entire US during the last 100 years, but in 2007 alone there were 33 people killed in dog attacks across the country. In 2008 domestic dogs killed 23 people.

Just as in the term “stalking” there is no definition given for “unprovoked aggression”—it’s simply left for everyone to decide for themselves what they think it means.

No physical evidence to prove/disprove whether a mountain lion (cougar) was stalking or being aggressive
If a cougar is killed because it was "stalking" or showing "unprovoked aggression" there will never be any physical evidence of any kind to prove or disprove the killer's claim of what the cat was doing when it was killed. Law enforcement will depend entirely on the word of the individual who's facing potential prosecution as to whether they committed a crime (or not) with absolutely no way to confirm it. This will result in no successful prosecutions, and people will be able to kill nountain lions anywhere anytime and simply claim that the cougar was "stalking" or showing "unprovoked aggression" toward a person, or was "stalking" one of their animals.

A cougar stalking a person can be stopped with non-lethal means
There is at least one documented instance of a cougar stalking a person that was effectively stopped and turned away with pepper spray. A wildlife photographer was observing a female cougar with her nearly-grown cubs. The young male started stalking the photographer, and when the cat got too close for comfort, he squirted pepper spray at it. The cat immediately stopped stalking and ran off. So there is no need for people to kill a mountain lion just because they think it's stalking them. And it's much more reasonable to have people in cougar country carrying pepper spray than guns to protect themselves from the unlikely (but possible) cougar incident--which are statistically extremely rare anyway.

To "pave the way" to trophy hunting of cougars?
There are articles elsewhere on the internet that claim that Nebraska LB747 will "pave the way for a trophy hunting season." There is nothing in the bill that provides for that, and there was no discussion of that by anyone in the hearing before the Natural Resouces Committee. Read the bill for yourself: there's a link to a copy of it below. There is also link to a copy of a transcript of the Committee hearing below.

Conclusion
Nebraska LB747 is a sloppily and carelessly-worded bill that will rival the recent "safe haven" debacle that put Nebraska front and center in the national news for its thoughtless lawmaking. But this one will not make national headlines. It will result in farmers and ranchers quietly and systematically killing off cougars--just like they did 100 years ago.

Natural Resources Committee hearing on LB747 on 01-27-2010

There were just a few people people who testified at the Natural Resources Committee's public hearing on LB747. All but one testified in favor of LB747.

Greg Lyons was the only one who testifed against the bill, stating that he and the FCF (Feline Conservation Federation) did not oppose codifying current Game and Parks Commission policy regarding the handling of cougar (mountain lion) depredation, but were opposing the bill based on its technical wording: it appears to be ambiguous, and would probably result in Game and Parks not being able to enforce the law.

LB747 is bypassed on 03-04-2010 with an amendment to LB836

Senator Louden filed a changed version of LB747 as an amendment to LB836 (page 761) on Thursday, March 4, 2010.

This ammendment moves the definition of which species are to be considered "predators" into the section in which the term "predator" is used, and mountain lions (cougars) have been removed from the list of species that may be killed for depredation without a permit from NGPC. This removes the ambiguity in the original wording that would have provided farmers and ranchers a huge legal loophole and allowed them to kill cougars (mountain lions) pretty-much at-will. It's troubling that bobcats are still in that loophole, but at least (as a species) they don't appear to be in jeopardy in Nebraska right now like cougars are.

The sections of the bill that implement NGPC's current cougar policy are still in the bill.

The problems with allowing people to kill cougars (mountain lions) if they are seen "stalking" either a person or domestic animal, or if the mountain lion shows "unprovoked aggression" toward a person are still in the bill, and untouched in the current ammended version.

LB836 is passed on 03-30-2010 with 46 affirmative votes, one negative vote, one Senator present and not voting, and one Senator not present (but said later if he'd been present, he would have voted for the bill)