CPW should first act with due haste to end bobcat hounding and baited trapping, with no justification for either cruel practice, and then end hounding of mountain lions
Grand Lake, CO — Leaders from Cats Aren’t Trophies called on Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioners and staff leadership at Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to act with all due speed to end hound hunting and baited trapping of bobcats and lions.
“Voters most definitely did not affirm vicious and highly commercialized forms of trophy hunting and commercial trapping of our native cats by narrowly rejecting Prop 127,” said Sam Miller, Campaign Director for CATs. “The majority of voters, including hundreds of thousands of ‘No on 127’, said serious-minded wildlife protection reforms should be instituted, with a hand off of the ball to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The vote was about choosing a pathway for reform, not about rejecting reform.
“When all votes are counted, nearly 1.5 million Coloradans will be on record in saying they want an immediate end to trophy hunting and commercial trapping of bobcats and mountain lions,” said Julie Marshall, Communications Director for CATs. “So many ‘no’ voters want reform, but simply didn’t feel comfortable doing it on the ballot. They want CPW to act, and that starts with having CPW end its unlimited allowance for killing bobcats and halting hounding and baiting of the animals.”
How citizens feel about these methods alone is known, reported by the Colorado State University study published in Society for Conservation Biology just three months ago, which shows that 88.2% of citizens disapprove of hunting mountain lions with dogs.
In moving forward, the CATs citizen coalition with its many wildlife experts has revealed the most crucial points that cannot be ignored, especially by CPW commissioners or the Legislature that sets policy for all citizens of Colorado.
These include:
- Using baiting, commercial trapping, and hounding is no way to treat apex predators who deliver so many ecological and economic services to Colorado. No other big game animals in Colorado are baited or hounded, and none are shot during a period when mothers have dependent young..
- Random shooting and trapping of mountain lions and bobcats should not be mistaken for wildlife management. It’s just a recreational and commercial killing opportunity for the very small number of people who killing cats. There is not a shred of evidence to support the notion that recreational killing of these animals does anything to reduce the remote chances of human conflicts with lions or bobcats.
- That policymakers should be guided by overwhelming evidence that mountain lions uniquely benefit the health and balance of nature and are a bulwark against the further spread of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk.
“Colorado Parks and Wildlife cannot honestly describe hounding and baiting seasons as ‘science-based management’ and allow unlimited killing of bobcats for their fur or for trophies, and it’s an insult for anyone to suggest that’s what’s happening,” added Miller. “The agency operates at its peril by stonewalling on obvious reforms to protect wild cats. The vote was anything but a mandate on baiting trapping and hounding – it was a vote of deference to the agency to take action itself.”