A recent report from the NRA Hunters Leadership Forum sheds light on a potential cat problem in Colorado; that is, it’s a problem if you’re a hunter who enjoys and wishes to continue chasing mountain lions and bobcats, or you simply agree that wildlife management should continue to be based on science.
You may recall that in September of last year, animal rights extremists representing the group Cat’s Aren’t Trophies (CAT) filed a proposed ballot initiative to ban all hunting and trapping of mountain lions, bobcats and the Canada lynx in Colorado. (Ironically, the Canada lynx is already a federally protected species, listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act since 2000.) At a time when hunters and outdoorsmen were already bracing for the impact of the passage of a 2020 ballot initiative known as “Prop 114” mandating the introduction of grey wolves into the state (a decision that removed the states authority on wolf introduction and gave it to voters who knew nothing about science-based wildlife management) many pro-hunting groups, including the NRA, were worried that if the new anti-cat hunting initiative, known as “Prop 93” made it on the ballot and passed, it would “prevent hunters and state wildlife management officers from managing the state’s growing predator populations through hunting,” as stated by the NRA Institute for Legislative Action at the time.
Well, it would seem that “Prop 93” is on its way to the ballot, allowing once again for a major wildlife management decision to be determined by the voting public, however ignorant of the topic they may be, and not by the sound, science-based wildlife management of the state’s wildlife agency, Colorado Parks and Wildlife. On July 3, 2024, CAT confirmed that it had collected the required voter signatures, a total of 188,000 to be exact, and turned them into the Colorado secretary of state, who now has duty to verify the signatures validity and thus determine if “Prop 93” will be on the ballot this fall.
This is a loss for hunters, a loss for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife departments, and a loss for the successful, science-based North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. If “Prop 93” passes, one wonders what the propaganda arm of the anti-hunting wildlife extremists will take from us next.
“Radical anti-hunting activists are attempting to impose a ban on big-cat hunting through propaganda and misinformation versus reasoned science,” said Travis Couture-Lovelady, Colorado NRA-ILA State Director. “Wildlife management decisions should be studied and made by experts using scientific data—not based on emotion.”
If it appears on the ballot this fall, Colorado hunters and outdoorsman must Vote “No” on Prop 93, and they must convince much of their non-hunting citizenry to do the same.
