Voters will decide in November whether the hunting of mountain lions and bobcats should be banned in Colorado after Cats Aren’t Trophies, the main driver of this initiative, paid $7 per signature to professional signature gatherers to essentially do whatever it takes to get signatures. We spoke to several of the signature gatherers; some of them were outdoorsmen who didn’t even know exactly what they were peddling. They are given “click bait”-style talking points and are incentivized by getting paid per signature. How does this not breed deceit?
If you only read what gets put out by the opposition, you would believe the worst about hunters and anglers. It’s a constant battle in today’s world to educate people who are not in the know. You may be “squeaky clean” in your views and be on the right side of science and best practices, but that doesn’t mean anything if there is someone out there outpacing you and spreading lies and misinformation.
Cats Aren’t Trophies, the main proponate behind the ballot initiative, misrepresents hunters and trappers; they paint us as animal-hating, blood- thirsty Neanderthals. This simply is not true. Hunters do and have done more for wildlife than any other group of people. Hunters are animal lovers and stewards of wildlife.
The measure, backed by the group Cats Aren’t Trophies, reads: “Any trophy hunting of mountain lions, bobcats, or lynx is inhumane, serves no socially acceptable or ecologically beneficial purpose, and fails to further public safety.”
Social– This statement, among other fallacies in the measure, is 100% false. Regardless of the fact that it is illegal to not utilize lion meat in Colorado, Cats Aren’t Trophies has publicly promoted that lions are inedible, despite countless testimony and examples from the hunting community that lions and bobcats are excellent table fare and are not only utilized but coveted.
Ecological- We have all seen the ecological meltdown when apex predators are not managed in places like British Columbia, which is suffering from the predator pit phenomenon, and Colorado is primed to see something similar in the future with wolves on the landscape and unregulated lions and bobcats should this pass. It’s not fair to the predators or the prey, and if this succeeds in becoming a law, it will ruin wildlife.
It’s a really sad affair; they have made claims that lions are endangered, which is categorically false. Lions are doing better now since they have been listed as a game species than they ever were in Colorado. Animal extremists walking around under the guise of being conservationists often cite California’s ban on lion hunting as a successful program, never divulging to the public that lions are still killed by government officials in large numbers. The death of lions didn’t stop! Instead of letting a willing hunter pay for a tag, use the meat, and hide, taxpayers are paying for lions to be killed and their bodies discarded unused.
Public safety- Moreover, CA has the highest incidence of negative lion-human interaction and the highest number of fatal attacks. Is this not evidence of furthering public safety?
“ What is important here is to recognize that these ideas to ban predator hunting have been proposed many different times in recent history and have been shot down by both the legislature and the commission,” says Charles Whitwam, president of Howl For Wildlife. “They couldn’t win in the arena of rationale and logic that relied on scientific data from CPW, so they went to work on the public, because there they can say and do whatever they like to push their lies.”
“It’s ballot box biology, , it’s irresponsible, and it negatively impacts ecosystems and wildlife in general. We have trained professionals like biologists who went to school to learn how to manage wildlife. You wouldn’t go to your mechanic to have them perform brain surgery, so why would you put wildlife decisions in the hands of soccer moms, bus drivers, and banking executives?“
“What it comes down to is that they want to control you. They want you to eat what they want you to eat. Think how they want you to think. Their argument is not backed by science; there is no validity to their narrative; they just want what they want and will do whatever is necessary to achieve their goals.
The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation works And These animal extremist groups care more for the individual animal than the species as a whole. Colorado voters have an opportunity to put a stop to this irrational thinking. Hopefully, we don’t all fall for the click bait and false one-liners, and we look deeper into the issues before we cast our votes. If you are a CO resident, get out and vote. If you are a non-resident, you can still impact the decision of this vote. Go to https://wildlifedeservebetter.com/.
