There you are in your 4-wheel drive vehicle, drinking coffee, waiting to hear that dogs with GPS collars have treed a mountain lion. When the call comes, you drive over and shoot the cat out of the tree. You might as well shoot fish in a barrel! But you don’t care about the ethical hunting practice of fair chase.
Maybe dogs got injured or died (the lion put up a fight after all), but no mind — you’ve got your trophy! You can show all your friends that photo of you with the dead mountain lion.
You might know that mountain lions stay with mom for up to two years. Oops, if you’ve killed a female (like nearly half of lions killed each year,) her teenage lions who don’t yet know how to hunt might take pets or livestock, but who cares, you got your kill…
You might know that mountain lions are allies in controlling chronic wasting disease, which can decimate our deer and elk herds. You’ve heard that there is no scientific basis for killing mountain lions; as apex predators, they control their own populations. But you know more than all those scientists, and plus, you got to kill a mountain lion!
Let’s make this story a thing of the past. Vote YES on Proposition 127 and let’s end this cruelty.
Carol Monaco
Brighton, CO