Letter: Vote ‘Yes’ on 127
Thank you to four Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners for confirming why they support voting “yes’ on Proposition 127.听
听“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),”听writes Commission Vice Chair Richard Reading, PhD, a wildlife biologist,听.听“Similarly, bobcats are trapped not for personal use, but for the sale of their fur for sale to buyers from outside the U.S. 鈥� the very definition of commodification.”听
“Prop 127 allows voters to recognize not all hunting is defensible, and these are indefensible state-sanctioned acts of cruelty,” explains听former and current commissioners James Pribyl, Jack Murphy and Jessica Beaulieu听in their听.听
“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.
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Vote “YES” on 127 鈥� it protects mountain lions from trophy hunters while allowing management to protect people,听pets听and livestock.听
Jacci McKenna
Eagle
