Instead of Relocating Them, These Cougar Kittens Are Now Dead

A mother and her three kittens. Those are just some of the casualties of urban sprawl in Colorado.

Since the beginning of the year, Glenwood Springs residents had noticed they weren't alone in their neck of the woods. Over the past several weeks they had seen a family of mountain lions lurking about, and after one neighborhood dog was killed people began to worry.

That's when they decided to call (CPW). Perhaps residents thought CPW officials would be able to scare the cougars back to the mountains or relocate them to a more remote area where they wouldn't pose a threat. Unfortunately, officials had another solution in mind. They trapped the mother and her one-year-old kittens and killed them.

Parks and Wildlife defended their action by saying it was their "only option." But that simply isn't the case. Colorado is a vast, mountainous state with wide swaths of unpopulated lands where these mountain lions could have been released to live a long and wild life. Instead, officials decided to take the lives of five pumas — a mother, her three cubs, and another adult.

The land these animals were roaming is theirs not ours and they should not be punished simply for being the predators that nature intended them to be.

Obviously, we must take the safety of Glenwood Springs residents into account but euthanization should have never been an option when they could have easily been relocated. Especially since their location could have been monitored with collars.

It's too late for the five mountain lions that were killed by CPW but hopefully, it won't be for the next family of pumas that encroach into a Colorado town. Please sign the petition and demand that Colorado Parks and Wildlife stop using lethal methods to deal with animal nuisances and ask them to use relocation instead.