Dear John,

Trophy hunting of American mountain lions.

It’s appalling. Inhumane. Unsporting.

Done just as a head-hunting exercise. And for bragging rights.

We are taking action to stop it.

Animal Wellness Action has decided to lead an effort to qualify and pass a ballot measure in Colorado to halt the trophy hunting of mountain lions and the commercial trapping of bobcats. It’s going to be a big battle with the NRA and the Safari Club.

But it’s a battle that must be engaged.

The toll is staggering: 500 lions shot annually, with “professional guides” “guaranteeing a kill” to fee-paying clients who shell out $8,000 to kill a trophy cat. And the toll on bobcats is even bigger: 2,000 bobcats trapped or hounded, mainly for their fur to be sold to elites in China and Russia.

We’re a lead member of a coalition called Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs), and that new group has the singular mission to qualify and pass a ballot initiative in Colorado to halt this trophy hunting of lions and lions and commercial trapping of bobcats. The measure also protects lynx, who are sometimes mistaken for bobcats and killed in traps and hound hunts that don’t make subtle distinctions in the body types of these medium-sized cats.

The details are hard for any compassionate person to fathom.

Trophy hunters use packs of dogs—up to eight in a pack—fitted with GPS collars to keep track of them as they chase the fleeing cats into trees. The trophy hunters find the location with their high-tech telemetry equipment, walk up to the tree, and shoot the cats off of a limb.

Bobcats are hounded, too, but because of their beautiful fur, they are also trapped, with their pelts exported for sale to wealthy elites in Russia and China.

Let me note that the dogs conscripted into these high-tech hunts are victims, too, just as are the lions and bobcats. The pack of dogs can overtake their quarry, and a terrible and deadly dog-on-cat fight can result. Dogs and cats may be injured or killed.

Remember, it’s a crime to stage animal fights with dogs or roosters in Colorado. Why is it okay to allow these staged fights to unfold in Colorado’s forests and other public lands?

Remember this: trophy hunters do not kill mountain lions and bobcats for their meat. Eating domesticated cats—made of the same sinew as wild cats—is so indefensible that a federal law bans commerce in it.

It’s a head-hunting exercise.

And killing mountain lions and bobcats for trophies and fur serves no legitimate management purpose. This initiative preserves current state law allowing for mountain lions posing a risk to “human life, livestock, real or personal property” to be killed for public safety. The ballot measure targets the killing of unoffending wild animals who are not bothering people in any way.

Mountain lions play a special role in protecting Colorado ecosystems. One of the most remarkable ecological services they provide is to limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, an always-fatal neurological illness that has infected deer and elk in the state.

Mountain lions, according to peer-reviewed research, play a role in removing infected deer and elk, sometimes before any symptoms are evident. They make deer and elk populations healthier for hunters and non-hunters alike

Trophy hunting of mountain lions results in orphaned cubs and juveniles, who can stay with their mothers for the first year and even longer to learn essential survival skills. Statistically, orphaned kittens will die, mainly from starvation, with just a 4 percent chance of survival.

These animals deserve better. We can stop this, in just more than a year’s time. We must fight to get this on the ballot and fight for the support of every voter in the state.

To win, we need YOU.

Will you consider a donation to Animal Wellness Action to support our work to save Colorado’s wild cats from inhumane trophy hunting and trapping? These magnificent animals are up against the fundraising machine of the Safari Club International, the NRA, and like-minded groups, and they are vulnerable. Every dollar raised matters. Every voter reached counts.

With your support, we can stop inhumane and unsporting trophy hunts of inedible animals.

Please consider a donation today. Thank you for your support!

For Colorado CATs,

Wayne Pacelle President Animal Wellness Action