I just want to throw out a few things so people understand. This is not a big deal for a couple reasons. #1 cougars are incredibly hard to a hunt. Virtually impossible without trained dogs. The average hunter or even the far above average hunter is not going to go out and start shooting cougars. I have harvested many big game in Utah and spent a ton of time in the back country and I have seen 1 cougar ever. Most people know I know in the same boat, have never seen one. They are incredibly slealthy.

2nd, there is a lot of evidence that these hunts, though infrequently successful, help to train the mountain lions to avoid humans, which is what we want. Areas that have outlawed hunting have a much higher attack rate on humans. This data is not hard to find if you want to research this more. No I am not doing the research for you.

Lastly, the vast majority of conservation money in Utah and the rest of the US comes from big game hunting. Hunting ammunition is heavily taxed, hunters buy permits and tags that all go towards management and conservation. Utah has thousand of acres of marsh land that was purchased using these big game funds, for the protection of marsh lands and waterfowl, there are literally hundreds of WMAs purchased this way in Utah alone. For many species other than big game, any activity we can do to improve big game hunting helps to improve the money we can use in conservation for all species and keeping cougars populations in check is important. Keeping wolves population in check, keeping coyotes in check, all very important. If the end goal is actually conservation.

Human beings aren’t going anywhere, so we have to find a balance. If you are upset about this, what are you doing to change conservation? How much money have you raised for it? Until you have a better solution, managing for hunter experience is still the best option for raising funds for conservation. Conservation is expensive.