Elliott Wenzler reports the Cats Aren’t Trophies ballot measure brings minuscule financial loss (0.4%) to our state wildlife operations budget using good Colorado Parks and Wildlife data.

Cats Aren’t Trophies protects mountain lions from trophy hunting to collect heads, and fur trapping of bobcats to sell their rare and beautiful spotted pelts.

I look forward to Wenzler doing a deeper dive into the science, given a report by the Common Sense Institute lacks both common sense and science. 

Its authors are not biologists and an investigation shows this group is agenda-driven and biased, and they promote a time-tested false myth that killing off trophy lions boosts deer, along with millions of dollars to hunt deer.

This is no different than when Derek Wolf, a trophy hunter said on talk radio that killing lions for trophies is like “Christmas morning” for him, because he likes to hunt deer and lions kill deer.

Worse, the report pretends Colorado Parks and Wildlife research doesn’t exist, but it does, and it shows killing hundreds of lions has no remarkable effect on deer in Colorado. This six-year study in the Arkansas Valley concluded and was reported to the Wildlife Commission last January.

Our wildlife agency biologists report the idea of killing lions (unoffending cats) to benefit ungulates (elk and deer) “is not supported by the scientific literature” as published in Cougar Management Guidelines. 

A whole body of science spanning decades, with peer-reviewed and published research shows these authors are acting in bad faith or are just ignorant.

It’s similar to climate deniers, who look out the window one cold day, and write a report to say that global warming can’t be true, because it is cold outside.

Yes, lions eat deer and elk, they have to, to survive.

Let’s stop maligning lions. Science tells us we can ditch trophy hunting and trapping cats and have a robust economy with deer and elk hunting.

Now that is common sense, supported by the science.