Colorado Parks and Wildlife Promotes Effort to Kill Mountain Lions

Conservationists are upset by a new Colorado Parks and Wildlife effort to kill mountain lions in order to boost the mule deer population for hunting season. On the Huffington Post blog, a professor at the University of Colorado called the plan a “kill-kill” proposition. Professor Mark Bekoff added, “we already know that killing mountain lions to save ungulates does not work.” There are a number of factors that contribute to mule deer decline, but mountain lions are the least of them, he says. Human hunters account for much of the dwindling mule deer population. Chronic wasting disease was also found to be spreading among mule deer in Western Kansas earlier this year. The Humane Society of the United States is calling upon the Colorado Parks and Wildlife agency to allow a public hearing in Denver at its January hearing.