Dear friend,

Let’s take a moment to celebrate!

Yesterday, the Colorado Secretary of State gave us official word that our ballot measure campaign in Colorado – flying under the banner of Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs) – won official approval for placement on the November ballot.

That means that there will be a straight up-or-down vote on whether the state of Colorado should enact a statute to forbid the unsporting, inhumane targeting of these animals for their body parts and for bragging rights.

To be specific, yesterday we learned that the submission of nearly 188,000 signatures – accumulated over six months of one-on-one talks with more than one million Coloradans – met the threshold for qualifying for a place on the November ballot.

To be sure, this marks a milestone in our campaign to stop the needless trophy hunting and commercial fur trapping of the native big cats of Colorado for their heads and beautiful coats.

This issue will be in the national spotlight for the next 100 days and the effort will culminate with a vote of the people in the state.

It’s our greatest hope that the people of Colorado will vote to stop high-tech hounding and the bloody fights that result when a pack of dogs overtakes a solitary and badly outnumbered cat.

To stop “guaranteed kills” of “trophy lions” offered up to out-of-state trophy hunters by hunting guides.

To stop trapping, then strangling or stomping bobcats to kill them and then to take their fur to sell the pelts to China.

Even though volunteers talked to a million Coloradans over the past six months, many people in the state still have no idea that trophy hunters slay up to 600 lions a year in inhumane and unsporting kills. And they have no idea that trophy hunters and commercial trappers can kill an unlimited number of bobcats during a single season, resulting in thousands of cats killed for their beautiful fur coats.

Colorado has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to stop animal cruelty by passing a statewide ballot initiative. It will set the tone for how all animal protection policy initiatives will be viewed in Colorado and throughout the West in the years to come.

We ask you to dig deeper than for any other cause or campaign because an outcome looms. In less than three months, with your help, Colorado can usher in a new policy to protect native cats in the state from cruelty.

Will you donate today to help Animal Wellness Action fight for bobcats, mountain lions and other animals?

Our New Report Released on Mountain Lions and Their Ecological Role

Just two weeks ago, we released a new report, “A Scientific Review of Mountain Lion Hunting and Its Effects,” by Jim Keen, D.V.M. and Ph.D., that gives us insight into the beneficial role of lions in ecosystems and the utter falsehood from the trophy hunting crowd that head-hunting for inedible lions does anything but deliver detrimental effects to Colorado. (You can read the report here.)

Dr. Keen is a former USDA researcher and former faculty member at the University of Nebraska College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences.

His report shatters the false claim by trophy hunters that they are doing something good for lions by shooting them for their heads. The truth is, trophy hunters often target large, dominant males. This disrupts the social structure of mountain lion populations. Younger, less experienced males take over the vacated territories. These younger males are more prone to come into conflict with people because they have less knowledge of their territory and prey availability.

California banned trophy hunting of mountain lions in 1972. And when there are cases of individual lions coming into conflict with people, the state has primarily managed those conflicts with non-lethal methods like hazing and relocation, with just 10 problem lions killed in the entire state last year. California’s approach is working, sustaining a healthy mountain lion population and maintaining human-lion conflict rates that are similar or even lower than states that permit trophy hunting.

Mountain lions play a crucial role in the ecosystem by removing sick and weak animals. This can help slow the spread of diseases like the brain-wasting illness of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer, elk, and moose herds.

So let’s be clear: trophy hunting of essentially inedible animals delivers no benefits for Colorado. It enriches a handful of hunting guides who use high-tech hounding strategies for fee-paying trophy hunters. It creates chaos and disrupts the balance of nature, causing downstream adverse effects with deer and elk populations and creating a population of lions more likely to come into conflict with.

These are messages we need to deliver to 4.5 million Coloradans. And we are counting on you to support our work to take on tough campaigns like these against trophy hunting, animal fighting, horse slaughter, and other abuses of animals.

Never will you have an opportunity for your dollars to produce such a tangible and high-impact result.

For all cats and all animals,

Wayne Pacelle President Animal Wellness Action