By Lindy Browning | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Prop 127, a ballot initiative brought through the efforts of an extreme animal rights activist group, Cats aren’t Trophies (CATs) is a slap in the face to wildlife experts at Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). It’s also exploitation through deception for voters who love wildlife.
Western Colorado voters know that wildlife management is critical to healthy ecosystems and healthy and diverse wildlife populations.
Once again, Western Colorado is leading the way. On Tuesday, Sept. 24, Mesa County commissioners stood for all 900 species of wildlife in Colorado, stood for livestock growers and took a stand in supporting the experts and biologists at CPW. They passed a resolution opposing the ballot measure.
Hitting the nail right on the head, Mesa County Commissioner Bobbie Daniel said, “This is a ban on (wildlife) management, people will be voting not to have management.”
Groups just like this one brought us the wolf restoration initiative last election cycle. To date, it’s been a disaster for Colorado Parks & Wildlife, it’s been devastating to livestock growers and it has been devastating to the wolves that were transplanted here.
In just a couple of years, three of the 15 wolves [20%] brought into Colorado have died; one of those was killed by a mountain lion. A mother wolf and her pups have been recaptured and face an uncertain future. Ballot box biology is a disaster by any measure.
While enough can’t be said about the impacts to livestock growers, not enough is being said about the long-term impacts on Colorado’s wildlife when apex predators are unmanaged.
CATs and other animal rights activists like them are short-sighted, uninformed and use deceit to exploit the feelings of well-intentioned people who love our Colorado wildlife to fulfill their environmental justice agenda.
While CPW is not allowed to take a position on the proposed ban of hunting mountain lions, bobcats and lynx, the information on their website concerning the hunting of these species makes it crystal clear that the allegations included in the proposed initiative and on their website is an outright lie.
This shortsighted group is so hyper focused on protecting Colorado’s big cats that they intentionally (or by design) ignore the impacts on the other 900 species of wildlife who call Colorado home.
According to wildlife experts, a mountain lion will eat one deer a week. With more than 4,000 mountain lions in Colorado, and approximately 400,000 deer, the lions are already eating half of the deer population a year. If passed, Prop 127 will insure one thing; there will be no more deer in Colorado within five years.
To the group alleges that it’s cruel to use trained hunting dogs to hunt mountain lions, CPW says it’s the best way to ensure that the female lions, which are critical to healthy lion populations, are not overhunted and that kittens are not left orphans.
CPW specifically says that when using dogs to hunt, the hunter is able to see the tracks in the snow and tell the difference in size between male and female tracks, and see if there are kitten tracks as they trail their cat during the hunt. It also said that when the dogs tree a cat, hunters have the opportunity to easily see the sex of the cat that has been tree’d before they harvest the animal.
CATs also allege that trophy hunting is just killing for ego and thrill. CPW laws mandate that all harvested cats are prepared and packaged for human consumption.
While the group claims that many lynx have been accidentally trapped by bobcat hunters, CPW records clearly contradict the claim. There have been exactly zero lynx accidentally trapped and killed since 1996. Lynx are protected as endangered species by both state and federal law.
If well-meaning voters pass this measure without informed knowledge of the long term impacts to deer, elk, antelope and, yes, even the wolf populations, it won’t be long until they start wondering why they no longer see the majestic large herds of elk in Estes Park; the deer they have come to love in urban areas around Boulder, Golden, Ft. Collins and other Front Range towns and cities.
They will wonder why there is a significant increase in reporting of dogs and cats being eaten by the big cats, and, just like in California where a similar measure was passed, an increase in lion attacks on people, even inside the city limits of Los Angeles.
It’s time for sane people all over Colorado, who actually love all of Colorado’s wildlife, to take a stand against special interest groups who put their narrow-minded agenda before the best interest of wildlife, food producers and insult the experts in wildlife management at CPW.
It’s past time for local governments all over Colorado to find the moral courage to stand up against these types of measures that ignore a century of best practices, science-based wildlife management, and protect the wildlife and the people of Colorado and the visitors who come here because of our robust and diverse wildlife.
Lindy Browning is a contributing writer for Rocky Mountain Voice and an award-winning Colorado journalist.