The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission has approved a plan to kill mountain lions and black bears in a misguided effort to increase the state's mule deer population. According to news sources, crews will capture and kill up to 15 mountain lions and 25 black bears in the Piceance Basin beginning this spring, despite input from wildlife biologists who blame habitat destruction—not natural predators—for the decrease in deer numbers. And although the commission insists that its decision wasn't motivated by the desire to sell more deer-hunting licenses, it is highly hypocritical for it to persecute predators for engaging in natural behavior when last year alone, hunters killed 34,000 deer in Colorado for sport.
