DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Measure banning mountain lion hunting qualifies for Colorado’s statewide ballot.

Currently numbered as Initiative 91, the ballot measure purports to ban the practice of “trophy hunting,” which generally means killing an animal for sport and not for consumption or harvest. However, the initiative goes on to broadly define trophy hunting as “intentional killing, wounding, pursuing or entrapping of a mountain lion, bobcat or lynx,” which in practice means a ban on hunting the animals entirely, according to Dan Gates from Coloradans for Responsible wildlife Management, a pro-hunting group that opposes the measure.

“They say they want to curtail trophy hunting, but the definition in the petition says ‘intentional killing,’” Gates previously said. “All of hunting is intentional killing. If they are going to classify that hunting as intentional killing, how can they not be for getting rid of all forms of hunting?”

In Colorado, the hunting of mountain lions, which runs yearly from November to March (with additional hunting in April if needed) is already prohibited unless the meat of the animal is harvested for consumption. In other words, lion hunting just for the taking of a trophy is already illegal.

Lynx are already protected by both state and federal law, with hunting and trapping prohibited.

Yes, but Initiative 91 makes Denver/Boulder Axis progressives feel good.