California IN BRIEF : SALINAS : 3 Sued Over ‘Hunt’ of Caged Animals

The Monterey County district attorney has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against three people accused of holding big-game hunts in which hunters paid to shoot big cats in cages at a ranch. The suit accuses the three--taxidermist Kenneth Oravsky and ranch owners Floyd Lester Patterson and Dawn Patterson--of illegally importing endangered species, possessing them without required state permits, releasing them into the wild and possessing the body parts of endangered species. It seeks $1 million from each of the defendants. Also named as a defendant was Thurston Comstock, an Arizona animal dealer. In the criminal case, Oravsky and the Pattersons have been charged with 49 misdemeanor counts involving seven rare cats allegedly killed at the ranch.