In our last email, we asked you for your comments about what has happened since mountain lions were protected in California. Here are a couple of hunters' remarks.

My comment on this cat issue is that when the popular vote of the people puts into effect a law to protect a species solely on emotional, misguided and false information, eventually the truth comes out. Unfortunately much is sacrificed and lost in the process.

William Bero

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As a hunter, I've had too many encounters with lions. In Napa County in 1994, I was stalked by a lion while deer hunting. To this day I believe that if I hadn't turned and seen the lion paralleling me on the creek bank above and faced him down, I would have been attacked and probably killed. On one ranch I hunt in Fresno County, I saw five deer carcasses in just two days of hunting and three discernibly different sets of lion tracks. On another ranch I deer hunt in Mendocino County, I saw a calf with deep gashes along its side that looked suspiciously like a lion attack and a dead buck in the creek that had been killed and covered with leaves but had not been fed upon. There were plenty of tracks around it to tell the tale of the lion kill. The rancher also reported losing another calf to a lion, and my son and I spotted two yearling lions near a water trough at the other end of the property. These have been my experiences, but the hunting club I belong to has caretakers and reports from other members of many more sightings. There are too many lions around and they have lost all fear of man. Ranchers will request that you go by the "three S rule" when you see a lion — shoot it, shovel it, and shut up about it. No ethical hunter could break the law like that. The trouble is, when threatened by a lion, as I obviously have been, why would I be afraid to shoot in self-defense? The lions are becoming bolder by the year. The death toll from lions is only going to rise from its present count.

Huntnlady