Photo Credit: Byrdyak_envato
Ballot Initiative 91, which seeks to prohibit hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx has received enough signatures to qualify for the general election ballot in November. Representatives with the Cats Aren’t Trophies group submitted 147,529 valid signatures, more than the 124,238 that were required for ballot access. If passed, individuals convicted of killing these animals would be subject to up to 362 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. They would also receive a 5-year hunting license suspension.
This is exactly like when liberals pushed Proposition 114 onto the ballot to reintroduce wolves in Colorado. Unfortunately that proposition passed in 2020, by the smallest of margins of 50.91% to 49.09% thanks to the crazies in Boulder and Denver who will never see a wolf anyway. So far, 10 wolves have been “reintroduced” to Colorado, and more are coming.
Voting Yes on Initiative 91 would remove Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) from the equation and make it illegal to hunt bobcats and mountain lions in Colorado.
Voting No on Initiative 91 would be a vote to continue to allow the hunting of mountain lions and bobcats as regulated by CPW. Hunting lynx would remain illegal per state and federal law.
Bottom-line, once again liberals are trying to manage wildlife at the ballot box instead of allowing the professionals at CPW to do their jobs. Wildlife management in Colorado should be overseen by CPW’s experts who make science-based decisions to achieve the state’s ecological objectives. This measure threatens to undermine these objectives by disregarding the expertise and research necessary for effective wildlife management.
Just like with the reintroduced wolves, which already have a confirmed kill on a rancher’s calf, the banning of trophy hunting would increase the population of these big cats and the chance of potentially harmful encounters with humans, livestock, and pets. People in Colorado have experienced an increase in dangerous wildlife encounters in recent years, and the measure would allow populations of these big cats to go unregulated.
To date, California is the only state in the U.S. where voters have banned mountain lion hunting. So who thinks it’s a good idea to conduct Colorado’s wildlife management just like California’s ?
No? Me either.
There were several of us that would hunt Colorado every year. That was before the state leadership went crazy. Now we would drive 5 hundred miles out of our way so we wouldn’t have to buy a tank of fuel in that state. I’ve talked to several people and we’re not the only ones. Adios Colorado!
Are there groups that will buy ads to fight this initiative if we’d like to donate? I know the pukes will carpet bomb Colorado with ads. My lion hunt in Colorado was one of my most memorable.
First, it was the mountain bike trail encroachment into vast areas of the Routt National Forest near Steamboat Springs. That did it for me…no more elk hunting in that area. Now, the cat ban.
I would say, “Let them reap what they sow so far as losing their precious “fur babies” to big cats but, unfortunately. a child or other person will lose their life because the loonies had to have their emotional fix by voting for the ban.
All I gotta say is you Colorado residents need to get off your asses and vote NO on this thing or you can say goodby to quality hunting in many areas of the state. All you have to do is look at Oregon, Since 96 when they narrowly and successfully banned hunting cats and bears with hounds bears and banned bear baiting, the game populations have had a downward spiral! GET OF YOUR ASSES AND VOTE NO!
My two friends and I hunted elk in CO, in the early 2000s. We packed out a bull elk and took it to a meat processor.The youngest of our group had an encounter with a cougar, stalking him, earlier in our trip. The guy at the processor, said he was not surprised, because they have heard other stories from other hunters. He also told us, every so often small children go missing, never to be found. This was in 2002. I cannot imagine not having a hunting season for cougars. Unfortunately, Californians migrated to get out of that state, but brought there beliefs, and California ideas attitude with them. This is not the only Western state that has that problem. Hunters beware!! Happening, here, in the East, too!