Dear friend,

We know that Cody Roberts exhibited sadism toward wolves. Running over a young female wolf with a snowmobile tells us all we need to know about a man with a deadened heart.

Cruelty to animals is very seldom a one-off. And that’s the case with Roberts. We have evidence that he’s focused his violent instincts on mountain lions as well. He’s a hound hunter, and I’ve included a photo of him and his son standing over a slain lion.

The acts of Cody Roberts, who ran down, tortured, and killed Theia in Wyoming, represent the kind of senseless cruelty we’re targeting with our CATs ballot initiative.

We are working on protecting wolves in Wyoming and throughout the nation, but we also have a major campaign in the neighboring state of Colorado to protect lions. When it comes to Cody Roberts and men like him, it’s not enough to provide a shield around a single species. We must create a sort of legislative ark to protect more species.

To that end, Animal Wellness Action is leading 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 is a once-in-a-generation campaign for animals in Colorado – consequential and important in so many ways.

We are in the thick of the battle right now and need your help.

Will you help us by donating to critical campaigns like this one?

The toll is staggering: 500-600 lions shot annually with the help of “professional guides” who guarantee a kill for their clients at up to $8,000 per trophy cat.

And the yearly toll on bobcats is even bigger: 2,000 bobcats are trapped or hounded, mainly for their fur to be sold to elites in China and Russia. Cody Roberts and his ilk chase down and kill these animals with a sort of gleeful ruthlessness that is chilling to me.

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.

While Colorado trophy hunters are responsible for about half of that body county, trophy hunters like Cody Roberts in Wyoming and in other neighboring states kill an equal number of Colorado’s wild cats.

These trophy hunters who flock to Colorado and treat the state as a wild-cat killing ground have made this a national campaign.

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 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 improve the health of deer and elk herds, for the benefit of non-hunter and hunters alike.

Trophy hunting of mountain lions also 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% chance of survival.

These animals deserve better. We can stop this, but 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 work like this? We must amass 125,000 signatures of registered voters in Colorado to qualify this measure for the November 2024 ballot for a vote of the people in the state. We have less than four weeks to complete that immense task of talking to hundreds of thousands of Coloradans at supermarkets, farmers markets, concerts, and other public settings where people gather.

If we get enough signatures, then the measure goes to the ballot for a statewide vote of the people.

To be sure, we are confronting the full might of the trophy hunting lobby. We are up against the fundraising machine of the Safari Club International, the NRA, and like-minded groups.

Only with your support can we win crucial fights like this one—in this case to stop inhumane and unsporting trophy hunts of inedible animals.

If you live in Colorado, you can sign up to help with our petition drive here.

But for non-Coloradans, you can support us so we can conduct this campaign and more like it. Please consider a donation today. Thank you for your support!

For the lions, bobcats, and wolves,

Wayne Pacelle President Animal Wellness Action