(The Center Square) – A bunch is hoping to acquire sufficient signatures to protected a ballot initiative asking Colorado electorate to ban hunting mountain lions and bobcats.
The staff Cats Aren’t Trophies just lately introduced its marketing campaign to accumulate no less than 124,238 legitimate signatures to get the measure on the 2024 ballot. The effort to put the problem in entrance of electorate comes after failed makes an attempt with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission in addition to failed regulation within the General Assembly.
“All of their efforts they’ve thrown at us have been stopped,” Dan Gates, president of the Colorado Trappers and Predator Hunters Association, stated in an interview with The Center Square. “And we even defeated them when animal rights activists were appointed to the commissions by the governor. But we also defeated this when it was in the legislature. The opposition didn’t like the outcomes, so they have put together a smoke-and-mirrors campaign with the voters.”
Cats Aren’t Trophies claims on its web page that “The vast majority of Coloradans disapprove of using electronics and hounds to deceive, chase, contain and kill wild cats all for fun and for a trophy. When systems fail to stop unethical practices that degrade wildlife and orphan kittens, citizens have every right to exercise their democratic freedoms and call for a vote of the people.”
In 2022, a invoice to ban mountain lion and bobcat hunting used to be indefinitely postponed by way of a 4-1 vote within the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Senate Bill 22-031 would have in most cases prohibited capturing, wounding, killing or trapping a bobcat, Canada lynx or mountain lion, with a number of exceptions, together with protective a person from physically hurt.
Colorado electorate have in recent times narrowly authorized any other measure that made up our minds flora and fauna control for the state.
Proposition 114, a measure requiring advent of a plan to reintroduce and arrange grey wolves on the Western Slope of Colorado, handed by way of 56,986 votes, a margin of lower than 2%, in November 2020. The Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund raised $2.4 million to improve the initiative, in accordance to Ballotpedia. Coloradans Protecting Wildlife and Stop the Wolf PAC raised $1.06 million in opposing the initiative.
The three-page initiative, entitled, “Prohibit Trophy Hunting,” defines the follow as deliberately killing, wounding or entrapping a mountain lion, bobcat or lynx, or discharging or liberating any fatal weapon on the animals.
“They say they want to curtail trophy hunting, but the definition in the petition says ‘intentional killing,’” Gates stated. “All of hunting is intentional killing. If they are going to classify that hunting as intentional killing, how can they not be for getting rid of all forms of hunting?”
Cats Aren’t Trophies’ web page states trophy hunting “orphans kittens.” However, state regulation already prohibits killing a feminine mountain lion with kittens provide.
“We invite all Colorado residents to join us in a campaign to end a highly commercial, high-tech head-hunting exercise that doesn’t produce edible meat or sound wildlife management outcomes, but only orphaned cubs and social chaos among the surviving big cats,” Samantha Bruegger, Cats Aren’t Trophies marketing campaign supervisor, stated in a commentary.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates there are 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions within the state. The National Wildlife Federation mentioned mountain lion populations within the western U.S. are strong due to conservation efforts, however are less than historic ranges.
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