Colorado Lawmakers Vote 4-1 to Shut Down Cat Hunting Ban

Colorado hunters scored a win Thursday as the state senate’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted 4-1 to derail SB 22-031, a move pushed by animal rights extemists to ban the hunting and trapping of mountain lion, bobcat and Canada lynx in the Centennial State. Media reports shared that the bill was shot down during its very first hearing yesterday as hunters, farmers, ranchers and hunter-backed groups including the NRA came out in strong oposition to a measure that had no basis in wildlife science.

Since the bill's introduction on Jan. 12, lawmakers had received overwhelming pushback. It was so controversial that three of the bill's four prime sponsors pulled their support prior to the vote. Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D-Boulder County) was the bill's only remaining prime sponsor and the only one who voted to advance it.

As this NRA website tracked, the bill ignored the facts about hunting. Colorado Parks and Wildlife and state wildlife agencies nationwide already work to sustain carrying capacities of our renewable wildlife resources using legal, regulated hunting as a valuable wildlife management tool.