with dogs, and baiting bears. It is sort of a Bears’ Bill of Rights. We also have a constitutional amendment that bans the use of traps and snares. The only exception allowing for trap and snare use is for commercial-level agricultural producers (not small farmers). They can get one permit per year for 30 days to trap depredating varmints. You can’t use your traps on your farm to protect your livestock without this permit. If you are not a commercial-scale farmer or rancher, you can’t get the permit at all. Live traps are your only trapping alternative. We also have a humane treatment
of animals law, that among its defi ni- tions says “…unnecessary killing of ani- mals” is bad, maybe even a felony. We just had a judge throw a weird young lady in jail for three years with a felony. She duct taped her boyfriend’s dog to a refrigerator after a romantic tiff. That was inhumane treatment under Colo- rado law. You can get a lesser sentence for robbing a 7-Eleven store here. The dog wasn’t injured, just inconvenienced for a few minutes. You can’t kill your own cat in
Colorado without risking jail time. Wild housecats are protected too. Who decides what is unnecessary
killing? The local humane societies and ARFs in the police and sheriff’s depart- ments decide. What law enforcement of- fi cer wants to take the guff from the TV folks for not prosecuting someone who shoots a mangy feral cat with a 22-250? The poor, lonely varmint hunter
gets tossed to the ARFs and legal system without a whisper of protest if some indiscretion is discovered. Cell phone- armed ARFs lurk everywhere! Colorado’s wildlife laws and
regulations refl ect the ARF infl uence big time. In fact, we usually have one or more Wildlife Commissioners who are ARFs, who work directly in the Wildlife Commission to discourage hunting. Of course, they will deny that they are ARFs, but the regulations they pass accomplish the ARF’s agenda, so what is the difference? Recently, our urban liberal governor got our Parks and Divi- sion of Wildlife combined so the ARFs will have more infl uence on our wildlife regulations and money. Recruitment and retention of hunt-
ers in Colorado is seriously on the de- cline. Who would want to start hunting
or to continue hunting in such a negative climate? The jeopardy Colorado laws and regulations offer all hunters is quite unbelievable. Even venial sins offer jail time, loss of license for a lifetime, and forbid hunting in many other states (interstate compact) for life. For example, there recently was
a story circulating about an alleged Colorado incident where a nonresident bought an elk license and hunted under the direction of an outfi tter. When you buy a Colorado nonresident elk license, you can also hunt coyotes as long as the elk license is “unfi lled.” A reasonable nonresident would expect his guide to know the law. As the story goes, the hunter shot his cow elk late in the afternoon, too late to haul out the meat. When the outfitter and he returned to the carcass the next morning, the hunter shot a coyote that was feeding on the gut pile. Elated at his luck, he took both the elk and coyote back to his home state, rumored to be Wisconsin. He took the coyote to his taxidermist to have it mounted. A zealous U.S. Fish and Wildlife service offi cer came by to check out the taxidermist and inquired about the coyote. The taxidermist, quite confi dent everything was on the up and up, told the history of the coyote to the offi cer. Upon hearing the story, the fed- eral offi cer swung into action, writing tickets to the taxidermist, hunter, and guide-outfitter for federal Lacey Act violations. According to the story, the Colorado Division of Wildlife then piled on its violations for this “serious” poach- ing violation. The Lacey Act makes any interstate wildlife law violation a federal offense and penalties get big. What happened? The unfortunate
hunter and outfi tter did not understand the Colorado Division of Wildlife license lingo. A normal hunter who bought a nonresident cow elk license for $351, or bought an either-sex license for $551, which said he could shoot a coyote on the license as long as it was unfi lled, would assume the license stayed valid until the elk was home and eaten and the coyote would be legal. But, no, even though the license and carcass tag are required and stays legal with the elk meat, its coyote validity stops when the elk license is fi lled, i.e., the elk is shot. Therefore, killing the coyote on the gut pile was a violation. Taking it home across state lines was a Lacey
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