All in for Utah’s cougars

As we reported previously, the Mountain Lion Foundation has sued the state of Utah to overturn a new cougar-hunting law that opens up unlimited hunting and trapping in that state, year-round.

The lawsuit gained considerable media coverage in Utah when it was announced: In this news piece, for instance, our executive director, R. Brent Lyles, was interviewed, and in this news story, Kirk Robinson, executive director of our co-litigant Western Wildlife Conservancy, shares his perspective as a conservation-minded Utahn.

Now that the lawsuit has been filed and the state of Utah has been served, the next step in the litigation process is the state’s response, which will arrive later this month. They may try to have the lawsuit dismissed, or they may decide to respond to each of the lawsuit’s allegations, point by point. Either way, litigation processes like these usually take many months, if not years, to be completely settled. “We’ll all have to be patient as these wheels of justice turn,” confirmed Lyles. “The cougars in Utah are in trouble, and although it may take a while to get this resolved, we’re in it for the long haul.”

For more information about the litigation in Utah, see the Mountain Lion Foundation’s announcement about the lawsuit. You can also learn more about cougars in Utah by visiting our website’s Utah information page.