Please sign this petition to stop the unregulated wholesale slaughter of our native Texas lions - also known as cougars, panthers, pumas, and mountain lions - in Texas for trophies and for blood sport!

TEXAS LIONS are deserving of the same rights and protections as African lions and adequate rules must be established for their protection. This is the message that must be delivered to Dan Friedkin, Chairman of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission. But that may be harder than it might seem: Texas multi-billionaire Dan Friedkin is an avid big game hunter who believes that it is fun to hunt down and slaughter lions - both African and Texan - for no other reason than to collect a trophy or to sell hunts for profit. This massacre must stop and Dan Friedkin must be held accountable for the policies that he enables as Chairman of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

There is a saying: “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats living creatures.” Texans should not fail that simple litmus test when it comes to the protection of animals and their natural habitats. Many people are unaware that lions are being butchered in the state of Texas. They may even be unaware that lions actually exist in Texas but they do – they are native to the great state and are classified as an unprotected species. Texas lions are popularly referred to as mountain lions, cougars, panthers, and pumas, and these proud animals deserve to be free from indiscriminate and inhuman slaughter for trophies or the thrill of the kill. In short: they need our help and we must answer the call to action on their behalf.

There are absolutely no restrictions regarding the slaughter of our Texas lions - they are vulnerable targets at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. Virtually all of the East Texas lions that carry the Florida panther gene pool have been annihilated and even nursing females and their kittens can be clubbed to death, poisoned, snared, shot or tortured in leg hold traps. Dan Friedkin brags on his safari web sites that he is involved with the conservation of lions in Africa and promotes the killing of only certain individual lions whereas, in Texas, it is the official policy of Friedkin’s Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to kill 100% of the lions in Texas without any concern for the survival of the species.  This hypocrisy must be stopped and it should be demanded that Friedkin work to conserve Texas lions as well as end the senseless wholesale slaughter.

Texas (Mountain) lions are incredibly important to the health of the Texas natural environment. Of special importance is the fact that they significantly reduce the population of destructive feral hogs within their territory. They also serve to improve the genetic strength of deer in their territory by naturally culling weaker individuals.

Texans should and must do more in order to be better stewards of its wildlife. Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Dan Friedkin must stop condoning the unregulated killing of unprotected native species by “varmint plinking”, trophy hunting or just for “blood sport”. He must do so loudly and then move strongly in developing rules to protect our lions so that these and other threatened native animal species will not disappear from Texas altogether. The conservation of the native Texas lion is a moral and timely initiative that must be enacted.

In East Texas especially, lion hunting should be brought to a screeching halt and large areas of East Texas forests, including the National Forests of Texas should be designated as “Cougar Sanctuaries”, where these magnificent creatures can live in peace.

To that end, The Ethician Foundation and The Universal Ethician Church have established Texas’ first Cougar Sanctuary, on over 2,000 acres on the shores of Lake Livingston.  As Texas lions need much larger areas in which to hunt it is hoped that mega-millionaires and billionaires, including Dan Friedkin will do more than give lip service to lion conservation in Africa and actually spend some of their fortunes to protect our Texas lions as well.

The Ethician Foundation is a 501(c) 3 Operating Foundation and donations to be used to purchase additional Texas lion habitat adjacent to the current sanctuary are tax-deductible.