Letter: CPW needs to end mountain lion hunts
Of all the outdoor adventures I have experienced in more than four decades traversing Colorado, my solo encounter with a mountain lion last year on a trail a few miles south of Hot Sulphur Springs ranks at the top of the list.
The big cat and I locked eyes and exchanged pleasantries for several seconds before he (or she) graciously stepped off the trail and trotted nobly into the scrub. It was an exhilarating few moments with a rarely seen cougar, the proverbial “phantom of the forest.”
Unfortunately, my fond memory has since been overshadowed by the fear that the glorious wild animal that I encountered may well have been shot to death by now for no better reason than the gratification of a trophy hunter. Sadly, Colorado Parks and Wildlife allows annual cougar “harvests” even though surveys clearly show that most Coloradans oppose trophy hunting of mountain lions as well as other wild cats.
Trophy hunting of cougars serves no legitimate wildlife management purpose. Indeed, scientific studies show clearly that killing of cougars threatens not only the big cats but also has a negative trickle-down effect on non-targeted species in the wildlife chain.
Trophy killing usually entails unleashing dogs to chase down and tree an exhausted and terrified cat before shooting it to death. Whether such an action can be called “hunting” is doubtful, but there is no doubt that it cannot be called “sporting.” For this reason, surveys have shown, most legitimate hunters in Colorado oppose trophy hunting as well as trapping of wild cats.
In the next round of hunting review CPW should follow the science as well as ethical behavior and eliminate the senseless and destructive policy of allowing trophy killing of cougars. Indiscriminate killing has no place in any legitimate “management plan” of wild cat populations in Colorado and throughout the American West.
— Walter Lawrence Hixson, Akron, Ohio
Reposted from: https://www.skyhinews.com/letter-to-the-editor/letter-cpw-needs-to-end-mountain-lion-hunts/
Interspersed with exclusive video, Leslie will discuss the complexity of issues facing the recovery of bighorn sheep; how mountain lions are being culled for bighorn relocations into their historic ranges; and what the future might hold for healthy bighorn populations.
In her early twenties, Laura Coleman finds herself living in London, her life an endless loop of commuting and corporate meetings. Tired of tight tailored suits and lacking direction, she quits her job and sets out for South America. Two months into her three-month trip to Bolivia, Laura is tired, bloated, sunburnt, lonely, and ready to go home. But a flyer about an animal welfare charity encourages her to stick it out, and soon she is en route to “el parque” in the heart of the Amazon. Arriving at el parque, Laura finds an underfunded, understaffed, dilapidated camp, along with suicidal howler monkeys, megalomaniac pigs, toothless jaguars, and many more animals who had been abused and abandoned. She also meets a timid and moody puma named Wayra who she now has to learn how to “walk” outside of her enclosure. Within days, all Laura can think about is going home. But after several weeks of barely showering, being eaten alive by bugs, and doing work that pushes her to a physical and emotional exhaustion she’s never known, Laura deliberately misses her flight back to England and spends the next two years learning how to trust Wayra, as well as how to trust herself.
Laura Coleman (she/her) is a writer and an artist. She has lived and worked in Bolivia for over a decade, caring for rescued wild animals with the NGO Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi. This is the subject of her first book, a memoir, entitled THE PUMA YEARS. She is also the founder of ONCA, a Brighton (UK) based arts charity that bridges social and environmental justice issues with creativity, and she lives by the sea on the Isle of Eigg in Scotland with a dog called Nelo.