AR-News: (US AZ) Bill Provides Immunity In Wildlife Attacks

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Attorney: Arizona Faces ?Potentially Tremendous Liability? With Lions Still 
Roaming Sabino Canyon

By Daniel Burnette


Lions A Threat? Mountain lions, like the one shown here, are at the heart of 
an argument over whether to kill, relocate, or leave alone some big cats 
roaming Tucson?s Sabino Canyon that officials say could attack park visitors. 
Meanwhile, a tracker set out traps at dawn March 23 in the canyon hoping to catch 
the big cats. PHOTO BY GEORGE ANDREJKO, COURTESY ARIZONA GAME AND FISH 
Unless the state Game and Fish Department gets a higher degree of immunity 
from lawsuits over the actions of wild animals like mountain lions, officials? 
first instinct will be to kill any wildlife that may be a threat to humans, 
says an attorney who defended the state in a lawsuit over a bear mauling.

?If you had asked any law student five years ago, in a vacuum, whether the 
state would be liable for the actions of wild animals, the answer would have 
come back as an almost unqualified ?no,?? said Tucson attorney Michael Rusing. 
Case law throughout the country, coupled with already existing provisions that 
provide a high degree of immunity from lawsuits for state agencies and 
officials, seemed to show that most lawsuits would not succeed.





full story:

http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=73
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