Walk with me.
I’ll show you Proposition 127.
See that metal cage on public land, covered in snow. There’s a bobcat inside.
A fur trapper used cat food as bait. She’s cold, wet and terrorized by dogs.
She’s one of an unlimited number of bobcats allowed to be bludgeoned or strangled to death in Colorado – of 965 in 2023, 98% were killed to sell their fur at auction, or for taxidermy.
We have no clue how many live here. I mean bobcats, not trappers, who number 700 or a tiny 0.01% of the human population.
There’s much excitement over how to kill. Some say shoot ’em in the eye, but angled down to avoid blood splatter that ruins the Chinese market price for fur coats. Or copper pipe with a brass elbow is popular to crack her skull open. Drowning has been used in Colorado, despite AVMA guidelines, because “a wet hide can make the fur slip.” So has acetone, injected into the heart, for bobcats deemed a nuisance life.
Large cable ties around the neck pulled tight suffocates the cat that suffers for 3 minutes, veterinarians say. Another option: shoot through the ear hole.
The problem: Fur trapping violates the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation in every way. It’s disgusting, torturing and selling native wildlife.
Proposition 127 is grassroots, borne of need, where a politically appointed agency pushed aside a petition signed by 208,000 citizens to end bobcat trapping.
Now drive with me.
A text alert from a trophy hunting guide paid $8,500 says his dog pack contained a mountain lion in a tree.
As advertised, these guides will “take you to your trophy,” where the dogs have “treed your trophy.” Guaranteed 100%. The client is driven into a remote forest, as a phone app tracks the GPS signal bouncing off the dogs’ collars. There are dogs climbing trees. Some dogs get hurt, suffer broken backs and have even been abandoned. There are surplus dogs in case.
It’s why 119 Colorado veterinarians say “yes” on Proposition 127.
The client shoots, watching the lion fall. She doesn’t die, he executes her on the ground as she’s swarmed by dogs. She’s one of 500 lions killed yearly as recreation.
These activities blatantly violate the NAM tenet of fair chase. The lion has no chance.
About 250 of the 500 lions killed for trophies are females, which means kittens die of starvation without mothers, says Dr. Rick Hopkins, Ph.D., lion researcher of four decades.
Proposition 127 remedies where the Legislature failed to pass a bill to protect mountain lions from unwarranted cruelty. Lynx are included as a preemptive measure.
Wildlife belongs to all citizens, and majestic apex predators exist for the health and balance of nature. Proposition 127 puts the science first.
There’s no research, no evidence to claim killing hundreds of wild cats solves any problem, says outspoken CPW commissioners; former chair and current vice chair; the commissioner with a Ph.D. in wildlife biology; plus dozens of the best mountain lion and bobcat scientists, former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and former chief of Biological Resources for the National Park Service who is a Durango resident and lion researcher.
There’s evidence to say killing unoffending cats causes instability among nature.
Where lions are no longer hunted, predators exist with stability and among deer in natural balance. This is true in California, which has not hunted lions for a half-century and where an average nine lions are killed yearly for conflict.
Proposition 127 provides exceptions for professionals to manage rare individual cats posing risk as best practices.
It’s time for smart citizens to exercise their democratic freedom to invest in ethical hunting and outdoor recreation for the true balance of nature for all of Colorado.
Julie Marshall worked for 35 years as a professional journalist. She won first place for her editorials and columns about mountain lions by the Colorado Press Association and worked as a public information officer for Colorado Division of Wildlife after citizens passed a similar ballot measure to protect bears from baiting, hounding and orphaning.
