DENVER—If an out-of-state environmental group gets its way, the selling of fur taken from wildlife will be banned in Colorado, with voters never getting the opportunity to weigh in on the issue.
The Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity on June 16 submitted a “citizen petition for rulemaking” to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission urging them to amend existing wildlife regulations “to prohibit the commercial sale, barter, or trade of wildlife fur in Colorado.”
If enacted, the ban would make Colorado the second state (next to California) to do so.
According to Dan Gates, executive Director of Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management, the petition was strategically issued just as CPW is starting up a furbearer working group with multiple stakeholders.
“These people with the Center for Biological Diversity knew that was going on and they are attempting to try to impose their particular beliefs and ignore science-based wildlife management and due process,” Gates told Complete Colorado.
The rulemaking proposal comes after an attempt to ban fur in Denver at the ballot failed badly last November. The initiative would have prohibited the manufacture, distribution, display, sale and trade of wildlife fur products in the city. Voters shot it down by 58%.
While the Center for Biological Diversity wasn’t part of the Denver initiative, it appears they are attempting to learn from the loss. The statewide rulemaking proposal exempts felt cowboy hats and hand-tied fishing flies from the ban, as these two products were a failing point for the Denver initiative.
The proposal would not put any restrictions on the hunting or trapping of furbearing animals, but is intended to eliminate financial incentives for the taking of wildlife.
Samantha Miller from the Center for Biological Diversity notes that while the proposal allows for recreational trappers to keep and use furs from animals for themselves, “it removes the market incentive for killing native species of wildlife in Colorado.”
According to the most recent tax return for the Center for Biological Diversity, whose mission also includes a “phase-out” of fossil fuels, the non-profit raked in over $22 million in contributions in 2023.
Unlike the Denver fur ban measure, and an attempt to ban big cat hunting in Colorado (which lost by 54% at the ballot), this proposal does not require any voter approval, and the wildlife commission has not as of yet taken it up.
