CO DPW responds to visible moose hunt near Boulder, CO

[JG358]

LOL, Makes perfect sense. Use funds generated by hunters to introduce moose and maintain the area then tell them they can’t use the area anymore because it’s now reserved for hippies and tree hugging shutter bugs during hunting season.

 

[COlineman78]

Kind of.... I posted this earlier in the thread but Brainard Lake is crazy busy on the weekends. Hunting moose there would be like hunting moose right next to Disneyland where all the park-goers could see. Sure it's legal but not the best choice.

Again, nothing he did was illegal but right or wrong, it was dumb and lazy. The moose there see thousands of people a year and have no problem being 25 yards away. The eat and munch food with 20 or 30 people taking pictures within eye sight.

Hunters should fight the good fight to keep public lands open but we also have a responsibility to present ourselves as ethical and intelligent. Shooting a petting zoo moose in front of an audience next to parking lot is neither ethical or intelligent

Agree, but at the same time CO DPW needs to fine people for feeding the wildlife as that IS illegal. I see this all of the time when out in popular areas where wildlife is around. On many of the 14ers, especially Quandary peak, the mountain goats are fed by the hikers and will follow you around expecting you to feed them. In Wyoming at Glendo State Park the deer are fed by campers so much that they will approach and eat right out of your hand. Just watched a video earlier today of a black bear chasing tourists with their cameras after they got too close to her and her cubs in Yellowstone and couldn't stop laughing and some of these idiots are just walking away when she starts running at them. They were lucky that there were so many of them that she didn't know who to attack.

In the hunter's defense it was a once in a lifetime chance and I don't blame him for doing everything he could to capitalize on it, however I would have made it a last resort to go hunt so close to so many people; especially in Boulder county. Almost all moose tags in CO get filled (over 80%, closer to 90% for bulls), so I would assume that they would be able to fill elsewhere. Where I work they allow a few employees to archery hunt on the property, yet they restrict an area around the main part of campus to avoid such a situation. But even if they didn't I would think it would show very poor judgement to hunt near the main campus. There are also safety concerns as who knows what a wounded animal may do. Consider a situation where the hunter didn't make such a clean kill shot and the moose ran towards the group of hippy shutterbugs, while it would be funny at first it might not turn out so pretty and there would be even more new restrictions on us.