The permitted level of black bear and cougar trophy hunting in New Mexico is unsustainable, and reducing it is vital to their survival, Nina Eydelman of Animal Protection New Mexico, a group dedicated to protecting animals, said in a press release.

"Our state’s black bears and cougars are worth far more than a stuffed trophy, and their cubs and kittens should not be chased with packs of radio-collared hounds across our wild landscapes," Nina Eydelman, Chief Program & Policy Officer-Wildlife, said in the release.

"New Mexicans greatly value and appreciate these rare wild animals, so as they struggle to survive amid extreme heat, fires, and drought, the public expects the state’s wildlife management agency to call for more conservation efforts on their behalf, not less," she said. "Tragically, that is not happening."

She made her comments as the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish takes public comments through Aug. 23 on how to manage the trophy hunting of bears and cougars for the next four years.

Trophy hunters are currently allowed to kill 864 black bears and 563 cougars annually, Animal Protection New Mexico said in the press release. The group says that these numbers are unsustainable due to the arid New Mexico climate and their slow natural reproduction levels.

Mary Katherine Ray of the Sierra Club, an environmental group, is quoted in the press release as saying that it is difficult to determine the current population numbers of bears and cougars in New Mexico. The studies that the trophy hunting numbers are based on are largely out of date, and those studies were only conducted in the “prime habitats” of the state, then extrapolated to the rest of the state. Due to this, the actual populations of bears and cougars are likely smaller than believed, she said.

The process for public comment hosted by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is "bizarre," the press release said. Rather than setting the criteria for public comment and holding them throughout the process, the Department of Game and Fish changes the new proposed rules on its website for bears and cougars during the comment period, "while the agency provides the public with no notice of their sudden changes.”

There are also in-person Game Commission meetings in the coming months, including in Raton on Aug. 25 and Farmington on Oct. 20. Both of these meetings can be attended on Zoom as well. The Department of Game and Fish is expected to vote on the black bear and cougar rule on Oct. 20.

The current recommendation of rule changes, posted on Aug. 1, was to increase the number of bears that could be hunted per year by over 50 and decrease the number of cougars that could be hunted per year by only 17, according to an Aug. 1 posting by the commission.