YOUR AD HERE »

Russell: Moral repugnance of mountain lion hunting

In your issue of Jan. 12 regarding the article on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s vote on mountain lion hunting, you quote Dallas May as saying, “we cannot legislate morals and ethics.”

Well, maybe CPW can’t (or won’t), but the United States Congress certainly thinks it can. Let’s start with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on Dec. 6, 1875, which forbids chattel slavery across the U.S. and every territory under its control.

I’m betting that amendment (not to mention the brutal war that preceded it) had something to do with morality. Many books have been written about this amendment through the years. These books all end up hinging on one thing: what is moral, and what is morally repugnant.



The driving of an animal up a tree is unethical, a hunter killing a terrified animal — who knows what’s coming — from a few feet away is immoral. Putting that animal’s head on one’s wall is morally repugnant.

Jacqueline Russell




Old Snowmass