Ernie Chambers reloads to stop big #cat hunters

By Joe Jordan  /   February 26, 2015
Nebraska Watchdog

With his critics no doubt ready to pounce, State Sen. Ernie Chambers brings his mountain lion defense act back to the halls of the Nebraska State Capitol (today) Thursday.

Courtesy Nebraska Game and Parks Commission For the second time in two years State. Sen. Ernie Chambers is urging his fellow lawmakers to outlaw mountain lion hunting in Nebraska

Chambers wants to outlaw the hunting of big cats. Approved in 2012, the first legal hunts were held last year.

According to Chambers, studies indicate 12 of the 22 “great cats” reported in Nebraska’s Pine Ridge were killed in 2014, along with four in the rest of the state. He says those kinds of numbers—16 deaths in all— “cannot be sustained without exterminating” the animals.

Chambers, who represents a violence-torn district on Omaha’s near north side, has been accused by some of his harshest detractors of caring more for the pumas than his own gang-plagued constituents.

Game and Parks Commission

Confirmed mountain lion sightings in Nebraska since 1991.

The Legislature’s longest-serving senator’s first attempt to save mountain lions made it all the way to then-Gov. Dave Heineman’s desk last year but was vetoed. “Nebraskans expect responsible wildlife management. (Chambers’ bill) eliminates an important tool used to accomplish it,” said Heineman.
There have been dozens of big cat sightings in the state dating back to 1991, when they made their first appearance in Nebraska in over a hundred years, according to the Game and Parks Commission website.

There are no big cat hunts allowed this year. There was a report of an unconfirmed sighting in south Omaha on Tuesday.

Chambers says there have been no confirmed attacks on humans in Nebraska during the last 24 years.
A public hearing on Chambers’ bill (LB127) is scheduled for 1:30 before the Natural Resources Committee.

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