Lawmakers advance historic ban on controversial hunting practice: 'Sets off alarm bells'

Decades after The Fox and the Hound forced audiences to choose between Team Tod or Team Copper, a similar real-life battle is shaping up in Colorado over a controversial hunting practice. 

According to Summit Daily, Colorado Parks and Wildlife will consider a ban on commercial fur sales. The move comes after an hours-long debate at a March 4 meeting over how to manage furbearers, including foxes, beavers, coyotes, bobcats, and mesocarnivores like raccoons. 

As it stands, individuals with small-game licenses can legally hunt furbearers in the Centennial State after obtaining a specialized $10 permit. 

During the 2024-25 fiscal year, CPW issued nearly 20,000 of these permits. Permit-holders have no restrictions on the number of furbearers they can hunt. However, since 1996, they have been banned from using leghold traps, instant-kill, body-gripping traps, poisons, and snares.

Still, animal welfare advocates argue that CPW's outdated furbearer management policies and the commercialization of fur threaten to throw the state's ecosystems out of balance. No matter the reason for biodiversity loss, the consequences can be devastating. 

In India, for example, vulture populations drastically declined due to accidental poisoning, and this contributed to disease spread. When wolves were hunted to near extinction in Yellowstone National Park, elk lost a natural predator, and their overgrazing caused riverbank erosion.

However, while it may feel like a surprising twist, regulated hunting can actually promote biodiversity by helping to control overabundant species. 

Opponents of the ban — proposed via a citizen petition from a state representative from the Center for Biological Diversity — say CPW's current approach supports conservation while ensuring the cultural tradition of hunting and trapping isn't a casualty of overzealous restrictions.

On March 4, a ban on fur sales was perhaps the most heavily debated item on the docket, as Summit Daily reported.

For Samantha Miller, senior carnivore campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, outlawing the commercial sale, barter, or trade of wildlife fur is "common sense" that aligns with the state's other policies involving wildlife management, according to the outlet.

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For John Swartout, former Colorado Department of Natural Resources liaison, the notion seemed like a surefire way to "turn partners and collaborators into adversaries." CPW director Laura Clellan agreed that Colorado's current management plan was sufficient. 

Nonetheless, the Parks and Wildlife Commission went against that recommendation. 

One of the commissioners, Jess Beaulieu, shared that her decision to push the motion forward was influenced by another collection of threats facing Colorado that "sets off alarm bells," including wildfires, water pollution, and increased recreation pressures.

"Fur trapping alone doesn't cause biodiversity loss, but in my opinion, continuing non-essential commercial exploitation and an already stressed system is wrong," Beaulieu said, per Summit Daily. 

Now, CPW "will draft a proposed rule to initiate our rulemaking process, along with an issue paper or draft regulations outlining any proposed exceptions," according to Clellan.

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