Thursday, August 09, 2012
Dan Richards removed as CA Fish and Game Commission President
BY BILL KARR
WON Staff Writer
VENTURA — As expected, Fish and Game Commission Chairman Dan Richards was unanimously voted out of his position as Chairman, and replaced by Commissioner Jim Kellogg during the F & G Commission meeting held in Ventura on Aug. 8.
"If we can't have Dan Richards, we were sure hoping for James Kellogg," said Bill Gaines, President of California Outdoor Heritage Alliance, after attending the hearing. "Kellogg is a hunter and fisherman, and he was the best we could hope for."
F & G Commissioner Mike Sutton, no friend to either hunters or fishermen, was elected as co-chair.
Richards was under fire from animal-rights groups and anti-hunters about killing a mountain lion in Idaho, where it's legal.
There will be a new vote in February to elect a new Chairman, but there are no assurances who will fill that position. Although it never has been a "rule" that the vice-chairman becomes the chairman, that has been the general succession in the past. Now, however, with the move to oust Richards, all that has changed.
All five commissioners voted to elect Jim Kellogg as president and Michael Sutton as vice president of the Fish and Game Commission. It was a unanimous vote. Commissioner Richards will stay on the commission to complete his six years of service which is set to expire on Jan. 1, 2013.
DAN RICHARDS,
past Fish and Game Commission Chairman, with the mountain lion that he
legally shot in Idaho. The photo went viral and vocal anti-hunters and
the general media played up the event big time, resulting in him losing
the Chairmanship during the Aug. 8 F & G meeting in Ventura.
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