Sharing is hard, and once again, the small group of billionaire-funded hunting extremists can’t stomach having to share wildlife with 94% of Colorado residents who don’t hunt.
That’s right, only 6% of Colorado residents purchase hunting tags. Even though these folks make up only a tiny minority, state wildlife agencies have historically been in the pocket of the hunting industry. This means that state agencies have managed wildlife exclusively for hunting interests, with other management priorities taking a secondary role.
At one point, this made sense. Before this model, unregulated hunting led to the extirpation and extinction of species, including elk in Colorado and, most famously, the passenger pigeon. A lot has changed over the last 100 years, and managing wildlife this way no longer makes sense. We have learned that intact, healthy ecosystems benefit everyone, including hunters. We have learned that wildlife has many values. We have also learned that it is not hard to manage wildlife in a holistic way that benefits everyone.
Thankfully, in Colorado, we have been transitioning to a more holistic system of wildlife management. Colorado Parks and Wildlife restores endangered and threatened species, protects habitat and land, manages state parks, and oversees recreation, hunting, and fishing, among other things. That change has threatened the old guard of the hunting industry, who have had to learn that as values change and new science informs our practices, they have to share.
So far, my experiences with people across the spectrum of differing wildlife values are that folks are more than willing to share. In fact, many people hold multiple wildlife values at once. As anyone who graduated from kindergarten knows, sharing means no one gets everything they want, but we all get something and can be happy playing together in the sandbox. Sometimes, everyone gets what they want if we are willing to make the proper arrangements.
Unfortunately, the proponents of Amendment 83 never seemed to learn this lesson. They do not want any restrictions on how and where they kill wildlife. In a great tantrum, they are willing to make this brazen attempt to steal and hoard power from the people of Colorado by enshrining a “right to hunt” in the Colorado Constitution.
That’s it; everything else is noise. Colorado has a robust and well-functioning hunting system. No one is trying to stop people from putting an elk or deer in the fridge, hunting pronghorn, waterfowl, or a whole host of other wildlife species. Just about everyone (myself included) wants a robust hunting system that can adapt as climate change, disease, values, and new science inform decision-making.
What Colorado voters have made clear is that cruel and inhumane practices are not acceptable. Specifically, spring bear hunts (killing mama bears with cubs), hounding (chasing bears up trees with dogs and then shooting them out of the trees), baiting bears (using human food like donuts to bait a bear), and leghold traps are not acceptable. This is not an attack on “hunting” ; it is a specific statement of values and ethics: that animals should be hunted in ways that are not cruel and require fair chase.
When voting, don’t reward a tantrum. Vote NO on 83 to keep our robust and healthy system of hunting and fishing in the hands of CPW, not a few extremists who don’t want to share.
