BigGameHoundsmen.com

I was just looking for some help hear. There is a movement in the state legislature to take control of manageing moutain lions away from out State Game and Parks and banning it all together. We were just given the right to hunt moutain lions this year. The movement is similar to what happened in California. It passed out of committe by a very substantial vote which doesn't look good. I Tried to contact the state senator but as it is the weekend I havn't heard back yet. To add to it all the game and parks is chooseing to remain neutral on the subject. Just looking for some suggestions and or organizations to contact for support. Thanks for your time.

First contact any sympathetic state legislators. Find out what committee the bill would come up through, and organize a letter campaign to the chairman of that committee and any sympathetic members of it.
Contact any and all sportsmens' groups, especially those that operate at the state-wide level, and enlist their support, getting their members to write to the committee members. The more constituents of the committee members that express their opinions, the better.
Contact any national sportsmen's groups for support NRA, pistol and rifle association,etc. Also contact state and local hunting clubs and any state guide associations.
Arrange a show of sportsmen at the state capital on any days when committee or floor legislation is proposed.
Lobby the governor--this may be within his/her power to handle administratively.
Use your contacts at the state parks and game dept. Find out why they've been neutral and see if you can find common ground that would encourage them to take a position.
Find sympathetic academics who will support your position and give you scientific reasoning to back you up.
Enlist the help of farm and livestock organizations who want to keep the lion population minimal.
Gather economic data on the economic benefit of allowing in-state lion hunting
there's some places to start!

Thanks Emily for the advice, all excellent ideas. The problem is one Earnie Chambers, lion season here as well as taking care of prarie dogs encroaching on your property both happened when this fellow was out of office. He claims to be concerned about the baby lions orphaned by hunters although the only lions killed so far were both males.He is holping up some game and parks funding to keep them at bay.
6 years ago cats really started to appear on cameras and have really taken a toll on deer, some calves, domestic and probably bighorns sheep as well. For some reason G+P has decided to call predation on domestic livestock as the result of coyotes, dogs, or natural deaths.
My pups find lion kills most of the times we go out, mostly well consumed deer legs, domestic sheep with stomach nicly set aside or burried, coon parts mostly tails, an elk pelvis, and even a coyote kill site with two feet and tail left with lots of hair. This is in Western NE, next to the SD Black Hills , in areas where rivers come down from WY and CO.
Last fresch snow I saw lion with 1 cub as well as two different size single tracks my friend saw lion with 4 cubs as well as single tracks also. G+P says 20-30 but we heard they have a whisper # of 90. Your right I will try and call legislatures Thanks Bruce
Omaha takes our taxes and leaves us to cope, which is why nobody talks to G+P anymore

I got ahold of my senator today and he said that this is past the committee and has 2 more readings left. He is a local rancher that wasn't present to vote on this last week. He is going to provide me with the e-mail list of all of the senators to contact them via e-mail he said that is by far the quickest way to get ahold of them. He said that this is past the point of public hearings and input on the senate floor. Have an appointment to talk with the head of the game and parks tomorrow via phone call he called me back tonight but we didn't have a good phone connection and had to reschedule for tomorrow. I plan on sending an e-mail to get feed back from all senators in the next 2 days. The senator stated that there has been some good info posted by the senators supporting it but that senator Chambers is a much better public speaker and an appeal to peoples emotions at the time. If we try to educate them when they have clear time to think it is much more productive. I then plan to single the oppositions out and lay some pressure on them from as many people as I can. If needed I will get the national foundations to try and pressure them I also am planning on trying to contact as many as possible the next couple of days to make them aware of the situation.

My Sen(Davis) voted against the bill, I called Earnie, he has no e-mail, they said to call around noon as they don't take messages only the man. His district is completly urban, 11.

Do you guys have a state houndsmen association? If not, you need to organize one, the more inclusive the better, including coyote/fox hunters, coonhunters, rabbit hunters, and even bird dog people. The bigger the group you speak for, the better. Once the anti-hunters get a toe in the door, its very hard to reverse.

A 5yr female with a SD collar ended our first and apparently last lion season. My speaking with the fellow in charge of ending all killing of lions was only fruitful if being called a liar is fruitful." Lions are not in gardens or towns, nobody sees them, any photos are just copied off the internet, you just think you saw any lions, there has never been an attack on a person".
There have been several close calls, one foiled by the joggers Lab, another by a cat that trailed a fellow until he shot it,the 10 yr old that fortunly didn't get jumped on by the cat in the tree by the chicken coop but all were close calls
Game and Parks is partly responsible for the mess"only 25 lions by scientific method" so Earnie can say a harvest of 3 will take the population to 0 in short order.
The original provisions for self defence and killing a lion on a domestic animal kill will apparently still stand, they had ben taken out at one point.

Thanks to all for helping out to get this stopped. I was able to get ahold of the senators via e-mail with info. For futrue reference the way I was finally able to get them to respond to me was to put monitary numbers infront of there face. I showed them the financial impact of deer hunting on our state and the affects not managing a mt.lion population could have on that and they finally listened. 3 senator supported a phillabuster on this on the 3rd and final readding. This is normally a formallity vote, a philabustre on the 3rd readding of any law haddent been done in 20 some years. Money is what talks. They were also told that they would be sued for infrenging on hunting rights since it is in our state constitution. This would also cost money. (I didn't tell them this, but others did.) If you want senators to listen talk money in todays economey. Thanks again. Ed Etherton

also thanks to all that made phone calls or helped however. wish i woulda seen this post and others made by fellow nebraskans!!! been so busy hound doggin and calving hadnt been here in awhile.

our governor got that joke straightened out with the help of everyone. im sure ernie chambers has done some good but in the state hes known for wearing a t shirt and suing god. guess that makes you popular in some circles. politicians like him have no idea that "his" little crime ridden urban district is .01% of the state and they have lot more problems to worry about than this issue!!!

im first to say quotas and seasons need to be had in certain areas and id be happiest man on earth if we have lions, especially to pursue with hounds without killing. there is checks and balances and a state like this thats primary income is agriculture needs to have predator control. someone from "district 11" doesnt realize that just because most the population in state is in 2 cities that all the farmers and ranchers from rest the state pay the bills!

sorry for the rant and thanks again for the support. happy running, matt.