Three Sitting Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioners, One Past Chairman Endorse Prop 127

Richard Reading, James Pribyl, and CPW Commissioners say commercial trapping and trophy hunting of big cats violates wildlife management principles

GRAND LAKE, CO, UNITED STATES, October 15, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Over the weekend, four of Colorado’s leading wildlife policymakers issued public statements urging a “YES” vote on Proposition 127. Prop 127 stops trophy hunting and commercial trapping of Colorado’s native cats, including bobcats and mountain lions.

“Proposition 127 bans chasing mountain lions with dogs, in which the ‘hunter’ follows the GPS signal from the dogs’ collars to a treed lion, walks up and shoots the animal. That is not hunting, and something we would never allow with ungulates (animals with hooves),” writes Parks and Wildlife Commission Vice Chair Richard Reading, PhD, a wildlife biologist, in his letter published Sunday in the Ark Valley Voice. “Similarly, bobcats are trapped not for personal use, but for the sale of their fur for sale to buyers from outside the U.S. — the very definition of commodification.”

The CPW Commission is the governing body that sets policy on wildlife for all citizens across the great state of Colorado.

“Prop 127 allows voters to recognize not all hunting is defensible, and these are indefensible state-sanctioned acts of cruelty,” explains James Pribyl, Jack Murphy and Jessical Beaulieu in their opinion piece in the Grand Junction Sentinel Sunday.

Murphy, Beaulieu and Reading are three current members of the CPW Commission, while Pribyl is the former Chair. Commissioners were appointed to the commission by two former governors.

“Opponents of Proposition 127 argue that we must allow our agency to professionally and scientifically manage wildlife. Nothing in Proposition 127 prevents the agency from doing that, it simply sets the ground rules by which the agency operates. We already do that. We do not permit use of night lights and baiting, for example. Yes, we may have to change some management, but our professionals at CPW are up to the task,” Reading says.

“Prop 127 is based on not a little, but more than a half-century of the best science as evidence for commissioners to confidently tell the voters that lion populations will stabilize, not increase, without hunting. In California without lion hunting, populations are stable, not increasing, and at the same level as they are here in Colorado,” multiple Commissioners report.

A “YES” on 127 protects mountain lions from trophy hunters while allowing management to protect people, pets and livestock. A “YES” on 127 preserves the balance of nature.

The Commissioners join a larger group of leading wildlife biologists who report that the scientific consensus is that mountain lion populations do not ever need to be trophy hunted, because populations naturally balance themselves based on environmental factors. That list includes Dan Ashe, the long-time director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the nation’s top wildlife manager. And Elaine Leslie, PhD, Chief of Biological Resources for the National Park Service, who lives in Durango.

Weeks ago, 22 top wildlife scientists, many of them with field experience studying lions in the West, wrote a letter to Colorado voters reminding them that lions are self-limiting and that they preserve the balance of nature, even reducing the incidence and spread of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk. 

That letter may be read HERE.

The scientists also noted that trophy hunting creates chaos among lion populations, creating a population with more juveniles less experienced at killing traditional prey.

Prop 127, as commissioners note, allows control of any lion or bobcat involved in conflicts by state or federal authorities. Those exemptions cover livestock or pet protection and human safety. 

WAYNE PACELLE
ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION
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