PIERRE, S.D., Sept. 30 (UPI) -- An animal protection group has failed to win a court order to stop a mountain lion hunt in South Dakota, the first such in the state.
A judge in Pierre ruled that the Mountain Lion Foundation of Sacramento, Calif., failed to prove the lion season could destroy the Black Hills mountain lion population, reports the Rapid City Journal.
The hunt, which starts Saturday, can now be stopped only by the state supreme court.
The Black Hills area is estimated to have about 145 lions and the hunting season will be halted if hunters were to kill 25 lions or five breeding-age female lions.
The Mountain Lion Foundation President Lynn Sadler criticized the judge's ruling as a blow to the future of mountain lions in South Dakota. "When you don't have a safeguard in place for a population this small and vulnerable, shame on you," she said.
But the state Game, Fish & Parks Department said there are plenty of safeguards in place to protect the mountain lion, the report said.
