An anti-hunting group in Colorado said it has gathered enough signatures to move forward with putting a mountain lion and bobcat hunting ban measure on the Colorado ballot this fall.
The Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs) coalition gathered 188,000 signatures on its petition to submit to the secretary of state for verification. The secretary of state has 30 days to verify the petition meets the minimum of the required 124,328 signatures.
If the petition passes verification, Initiative 91 will become the latest citizen-led effort to make wildlife management decisions in the state, reminiscent of the 2020 measure for gray wolf reintroduction.
“Today we submit signatures to give Colorado voters an opportunity to stop the inhumane, unsporting killing of mountain lions and bobcats for their heads and their beautiful coats,” said Samantha Miller, CATs campaign manager, in a statement.
The CATs coalition is funded mainly by the Humane Society of the United States, Friends of Animals and Animal Wellness Action. The group is also endorsed by about 80 animal rights and wildlife conservation groups, in addition to several local veterinary offices.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said it takes no position on the measure and will “diligently implement all laws duly passed by the legislature and the governor or by the voters.”
While the coalition said its intent is to ban “trophy hunting” of mountain lions and bobcats, the current ballot title reads more specifically to prohibit the “intentional killing, wounding, pursuing, entrapping or discharging or releasing of a deadly weapon at a mountain lion, lynx, or bobcat.”
The measure sets eight exceptions to the prohibition, including for the protection of human life, property and livestock. Violations of the prohibition would constitute a class 1 misdemeanor, fines and limited wildlife license privileges.
The CATs group said it had nearly 900 volunteers who collected about two-thirds of the total signatures, “almost unprecedented in the era of paid-signature collecting.” However, a July 8 report by the Outdoor Life magazine notes that canvassers were paid as much as $5-7 per signee.
A fiscal impact statement by the Legislative Council Staff, a nonpartisan service for the Colorado Legislature, found the measure would decrease revenue to CPW by about $377,000 annually from the loss of mountain lion hunting license sales. The cost of a mountain lion hunting license is $60 for a resident and $500 for a nonresident. About 2,600 licenses were sold in fiscal year 2022-23.
State expenditures would be expected to decrease by about $39,000 in fiscal year 2024-25 and by $77,500 in fiscal year 2025-26 and onward. This is a result of a decrease in game damage claims paid to livestock owners when livestock is damaged by a mountain lion, the fiscal impact statement read. State expenditures would also minimally increase in the Department of Law to provide general counsel to CPW as needed.
The measure is opposed by groups such as Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management and the Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project.
Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management said its mission is to stop the measure before it morphs into a nationwide ban on all hunting. “The stakes are high, transcending beyond the borders of Colorado, beyond the fate of Mountain Lions and Bobcats,” the group said.
The Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project said if the measure is successful, it will end “a time-proven, successful, and highly regulated method of wildlife management, removing decisions about wildlife management from trained wildlife experts.”
If the measure makes it to the ballot and is approved by voters, the measure takes effect no later than 30 days after the canvass of the vote is completed. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
