Bill to ban sport hunting of wildcats fails after a three-hour hearing state Senate committee
Marianne Goodland - Colorado Politics | Published on 2/14/2022
A bill to eliminate recreational trapping and hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx in Colorado went down to defeat Thursday after encountering plenty of opposition from a coalition of 20 hunting, angling and wildlife conservation groups and their members. The bill would ban hunting for sport, but allow hunting to protect people or for scientific purposes.
Thursday's hearing was almost as much a strong show of support for the state Division of Parks and Wildlife and its wildlife management plan as it was about the bill itself.
Canadian lynx, which is included in the bill, is not legally hunted in Colorado and at least 13 other Western States. The species, classified as a threatened species by the federal government, was just reintroduced in 2011 in Colorado.