Colorado Voters deeply defeated a measure to ban the hunting and trapping of wild cat species in the state. Proposition 127 lost nearly 11 percentage points Tuesday and looks the map Among the results, one thing clearly stands out: the divide between urban and rural areas.

Only six of the state’s 64 counties voted in favor of Proposition 127. Of those six, three were very close — including victories by just 37 votes in San Juan County, 48 in Arapahoe County and 404 in Broomfield County.

The result also stands out compared to another high-profile recent election issue on wildlife conservation: the 2022 passage of Proposition 114, when Colorado voters narrowly approved the reintroduction of wolves.

Seven counties flipped between the two breeds, voting for wolf reintroduction and against a proposed ban on big cat hunting just two years later. These counties range from more populated urban areas like El Paso and Jefferson counties to more rural La Plata and Pitkin counties.

Dan Gates, who led the opposition campaign against Proposition 127, predicted before the vote that the controversial wolf reintroduction effort would convince voters to reject the hunting measure — and said the results bear that out.

He thinks watching Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists struggle with livestock attacks Wolves have embittered voters by taking away their complete control over other predators.

“(The Wolves) were in the news almost every day for the first five or six months,” Gates said. “Lawsuits were filed and very contentious and confrontational meetings were held, but there was no action. »

The team behind Proposition 127 agrees that wolf reintroduction runs counter to the proposed ban on big cat hunting. Samantha Miller, campaign director for Cats Aren’t Trophies, said the handling of the wolf reintroduction had been a “tragedy” and said she would have voted against the measure if she had resided in Colorado at the time. .

Miller, who now lives in Grand County, said the wolf reintroduction and the resulting backlash “really caused a lot of mistrust and a lot of very negative stories about carnivores that spread through this campaign “.

The Proposition 127 campaign also generated numerous negative advertisements aimed at the hunting community, and particular anger was directed at those who hunted mountain lions with dog teams.

Supporters regularly praised a study published in a journal of the Society for Conservation Biology this suggested that 88 percent of Coloradans were opposed to hunting with hounds. These hunters would undoubtedly have been most affected by the adoption of the measure, because hound hunting in Colorado is almost entirely used for wild cats.

“It was truly a miserable experience knowing that your way of life, who you are existentially as a person, was on the line in a vote,” said Justin Angelovich, president of the United Houndsmen of Colorado. “You talk to the experts and ask them what is the safest, most effective, most controlled way to hunt a mountain lion, and they will tell you it’s behind the dogs.”

Supporters of Proposition 127 have outraised their opponents this election cycle, by nearly $2.3 million to $1.4 million, records show. Miller said the loss still allowed his campaign to raise awareness of the issue and that more than a million Coloradans had shown their disapproval of the trapping and hounding of wild cat species.

“I see this more as an intermission, not a concession, where we can look at the situation in different ways and come back stronger,” Miller said.

Proponents of Proposition 127 said they would focus their efforts on more piecemeal advocacy with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, such as pushing for stricter limits on bobcat trapping.

Gates “strongly” doubted he would be willing to work with Proposition 127 supporters on compromise proposals, saying he had fought the group for years at previous National Wildlife Commission hearings and at of a unsuccessful legislative attempt ban cat hunting in 2022.

“They never tried to compromise. They never tried to negotiate. They tried to get around them,” he said.