Don't Shoot, or We'll Shoot

Don't Shoot, or We'll Shoot
Supporters of a California ballot initiative to manage the state's growing cougar population through sport hunting not only suffered a crushing defeat in the March referendum--they've become targeted game themselves. State Senator Tim Leslie, sponsor of Proposition 197, received death threats over the Internet before the referendum, and Stephanie Cruickshank, head of California Lion Awareness, dissolved her organization after someone shot at her house in Auburn, California. "I can't even find her," says Roger Wildermuth, Leslie's press secretary, of Cruickshank. Meanwhile, anti-197 forces hope that their victory doesn't get obscured by the violence. "It's terrible," says Paul Van Dyke of the California Wildlife Protection Coalition. "But hey, our offices got shot at too."