͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. If you’d like to unsubscribe, click here. [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] Prop 127 Aims to Halt Shocking Scale of Trophy Hunting of Native Cats in Colorado Trophy hunters want to cover up their annual trophy hunting take of more than 1,000 shy and elusive mountain lions and bobcats, who deliver ecosystem services and disease control valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars to Colorado By Wayne Pacelle Opponents of Prop 127 – the measure to halt killing of lions and bobcats for their heads, hides, and beautiful fur – keep repeating the demonstrably false claim that Colorado already bans trophy hunting. They are trying to reframe lion hunting as some other form of hunting – one that is more legitimate than trophy hunting. As a matter of law and practice, there’s not a lion’s whisker of truth to their rebranding effort. Trophy hunters have engaged in a concerted effort to wipe clean 100 years of their own writing
and sentimental reflections on their hunts. They want to expunge their gleeful picture-taking with the large-bodied and bloodied animals they kill. They want hunting guides to burn brochures or take down web pages that boast of securing a “trophy tom” for their clients. They want the Safari Club International to pack up the trophy hunting record books until after the votes on Prop 127 are in, and not say a whisper about the Boone & Crockett Club’s 192 trophy entries [[link removed]] for Colorado. Perhaps they don’t even want the trophy hunters to invite guests into their dens, where glassy-eyed lions stare back at them from their walls or floor mounts. A drink on the patio will be good enough. Will you donate today to help Animal Wellness Action fight against animal cruelty in all its forms, including mistreatment of wildlife?
[[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]] Leaders of the No on 127 campaign sent out a memo some months ago to their brethren asking them to expunge “trophy hunting” references from their websites. While some have complied with this vocabulary whitewash, many haven’t heeded the instructions, perhaps because they are unapologetic about their favored pursuit. It’s All About the Trophy Indeed, it’s not hard to find promotions of “trophy hunting” by the network of professional hunting guides who offer “guaranteed kills” of trophy “toms” to their fee-paying clients, such as this one from Huntin’ Fool [[link removed]] . The term “trophy” is ubiquitous among the non-purged sites whose owners charge wealthy hunters [[link removed]
9288c3-036e-ef11-991a-6045bdd9e096&ceid=3248885#:~:text=The%20prices%20start%20at%20about,such%20as%20bobcat%20and%20lynx.] $8,000 or more to kill a lion in Colorado. On the internet, and specifically on the websites of hunting guides, the theme of trophy hunting is inescapable: “This was defiantly (sic) an experience of a lifetime ... getting me a trophy Tom.” ( Canyon Rim Outfitters [[link removed]] ); “Book Your Hunt: Mountain lion: Cost depends on “the outfitter’s reputation for producing quality trophies [[link removed].] .” A posting online by one lion-hunting guide talks of strapping a dead lion to a horse, with the caption “ tying on the trophy
[[link removed]] .” The marketing pitch and the images tell us all we need to know. The argument from some trophy hunters who may eat a morsel or a mound of lion meat does not unwind the truth that lion hunting is almost exclusively a trophy-hunting exercise. Are we to believe that a man travels halfway around the world, or halfway across the country, to claim some muscle meat from a lion? No, he’s led around by a commercial guide to the base of a tree for an upward-facing shot to secure a head and hide, not a pound of flesh. No Colorado Law Bans Trophy Hunting of Lions Let’s be clear about existing Colorado statutes that touch on what can and cannot be left behind by a hunter. Colorado has a wanton waste law
[[link removed]] , as many states do, forbidding hunters from leaving behind a portion of the carcass and to prevent only the stripping away of commercially valuable parts, such as gall bladders, paws, claws, and other parts of the animal. There is no prohibition on taking an animal for a “trophy.” The word “trophy” is not invoked a single time in the statute. There is no other statute that forbids “trophy hunting.” Even Colorado Parks and Wildlife uses the term “trophy” in tandem with lion killing. A video the agency made shows how to preserve the skin or hide [[link removed]] of a mountain lion or, if they are taking an excursion to Africa, a leopard for preparation by a taxidermist. Let’s remember that Prop 127 also bans trophy hunting or
commercial trapping of bobcats. Are we also to believe that a trapper eats bobcats he catches in a cage trap and then strangles or bludgeons? We know he’s there to sell the fur for commerce, and he tells us that’s why he’s there, but there’s no mention anywhere in their literature of killing the bobcat for the pot. Under current law, if someone kills a mountain lion and cuts off the head of the male or female and leaves the rest of the body to rot in the woods, that activity would be illegal in Colorado under the wanton waste law. If the trophy hunter packs out the full measure of the animal minus the internal organs, cuts off the head, and sends the head and hide to a taxidermist to prepare a trophy mount, that is not illegal. Nor is it illegal to take the head and the hide and to throw the meat to the dogs who just chased and cornered the lion, as a reward for their sacrifice and their animal-fighting prowess. The bottom line is, hunting of mountain lions is indeed motivated by an
interest in securing a trophy, and that’s why about half of all lions killed are by out-of-state hunters who typically spend $10,000 or much more for this opportunity (not only for travel, but also to use the guiding service and the guide’s pack of dogs and GPS equipment). Mountain lion hunting is trophy hunting in its most ignoble form. Killing an animal for the head and hide, using GPS tracking equipment and packs of dogs, and shooting an animal off a tree limb is not something that mainstream hunters do or even support. This is a fringe activity. There are rules of sportsmanship and decency, and this practice violates them all. Guided lion hunting with dogs is not really a hunt at all, but a high-tech execution of unoffending animals doing important work that benefits deer and elk and entire ecosystems. That’s why Prop 127 is on the ballot. And read the fine print. It seeks to ban trophy hunting of lions and bobcats. If you oppose trophy hunting of lions and bobcats, vote YES on Prop
127. With these efforts and more, you have an opportunity to invest your dollars in tangible, high-impact campaigns. We need your help. Please give generously today. [[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle is president of Animal Wellness Action [www.animalwellnessaction.org] and the Center for a Humane Economy [[link removed]] . He is the author of two New York Times bestselling books about the human relationship with animals.
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