California Assemblyman drops campaign to oust wildlife official who shot and killed mountain lion

Dan Richards

Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso said Friday that he is dropping his effort to oust Fish and Game Commission President Dan Richards. Richards recently came under heavy fire from animal-rights groups and Democratic lawmakers after a photo in a hunting publication showed him posing with a mountain lion he shot in Idaho. Unlike in California, where voters banned killing cougars in 1990, Idaho allows the animals to be hunted. Critics said his actions, while not illegal, raised doubts about his ability to lead the commission. But hunting and fishing groups, as well as GOP lawmakers, have come to Richards' defense. Hueso, a Democrat from San Diego, drafted a resolution to oust the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointee after Richards dismissed calls to step down. But the fate of the resolution, which required a majority vote in both houses, became uncertain this week when Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg signaled he wasn't interested in taking up the issue in the upper house...more

Shoot a lion and lose your chair? They still want to terminate The Terminator's appointee:

More than four dozen people turned out Wednesday at the Fish and Game Commission's meeting in Riverside to speak in support of Richards. But, as first reported by this newspaper Friday, hours after the largely pro-hunting crowd left, Richards' fellow commissioners sprung a parliamentary trap on him. The commission voted 4-1 to place an item on the commission's May 23 agenda that would repeal the current rules and allow the panel to remove Richards as president when it meets in Monterey that day.