Billings Gazette, Casey Riffe, Associated Press file
Facing sharply increased killing of bobcats for fur pelts to supply coat-makers in Asia, Colorado wildlife commissioners are poised to vote Thursday on whether to outlaw the animals’ harvest.
The latest state records show licensed hunters killed more than 1,900 bobcats in Colorado last year, nearly three times the number they killed 15 years ago.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have identified robust prices for pelts as the motivation for the increase in kills. Bobcat-fur coats made in China and Russia sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
But CPW staffers appeared to be leaning against the proposed ban, which would prohibit the use of live traps and also the hunting of bobcats as trophies.