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Cougar kill a political death for California wildlife official Dan Richards
Dan Richards poses with the now-dead mountain lion.
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Cougar kill a political death for California wildlife official Dan Richards
The California Fish and Game Commission replaced president Dan Richards Wednesday, seven months after he shot a mountain lion in Idaho on a hunting trip there.
California banned the practice decades ago, but Idaho and other states allow it. Richards has defended his actions as “legal” and proper.
But animal activists and dozens of state lawmakers said as head of the agency that enforces California’s wildlife laws Richards showed “poor judgment.”
Pictures of Richards crouched over his kill that circulated on the Internet didn’t help his case. He further incensed critics when he told KFI's John and Ken Show t the mountain lion tasted "like pork loin."
The Fish and Game Commission elected Jim Kellogg to replace Richards.
Richards stays on the commission till the end of his term in January.
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