Robert King/Newsmakers

It was just over a week ago when we reported on the controversy swirling around Dan Richards, the president of California’s Fish And Game Commission, after he posed with a cougar he’d just killed in Idaho. The initial outrage of animal activists, environmentalists and the U.S. Humane Society is now growing in political circles.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California’s Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has officially asked Richards to resign from his post in a letter.

“While not in California at the time, your actions call into question whether you can live up to the calling of your office. I do appreciate that you did nothing illegal in Idaho, but it is clear that your actions do not reflect the values of the people of California,” Newsom said in the letter to Richards. “Your continued presence on the Commission is a distraction from those important issues. As such, I am prevailing on your sense of civic service to respectfully request you resign, effective immediately, so we can move on to the pressing issues facing our great state.”

Newsom is not alone. As reported in the Mercury News, 40 Democratic State Assembly sent Richards a letter of their own asking for his resignation. A similar letter is now circulating around the state Senate.

Still, Richards has found support from hunting advocacy groups. According to the Mercury News story, some hunting and fishing groups “are urging their members to turn out en masse at the next Fish and Game Commission meeting, which will be held March 7 in Riverside.”

ltshears and julielangford/Wikimedia Commons

A photograph of an adult mountain lion.

Dan Richards, the current president of California’s Fish and Game Commission president, is in a whirlwind of controversy after a photo was released showing him posing with a dead mountain lion he killed in Idaho. While hunting mountain lions is illegal here in California, hunting the big cats is allowed in Idaho.

Even though the hunt was perfectly legal in Idaho, it has still generated plenty of outrage here in California with the picture, which Richards shared with the Western Outdoor News, who originally published the photo, according to The California Majority Report. They've released a scathing editorial (along with the offending photo, so please proceed with caution) calling for California Governor Jerry Brown to replace Richards, also stating that he’s opposed the Marine Life Protection Act in the past. The U.S. Humane Society has posted the picture to their Facebook page, suggesting that users "drop a (polite) email to the folks at the Fish and Game Commission and ask for a new president."

While they are a protected species in California, there is no shortage of mountain lion vs. man confrontations. Earlier this month, a man in El Centro had to pay a $500 fee for killing a mountain lion he says attacked him while hunting deer.