New ‘Yes on Prop 127’ Ad: Army Colonel Tom Pool — Rancher and Hunter — Says Native Cats May Save Deer and Elk Hunting in Colorado

Grand Lake, CO — Col. Tom Pool, DVM, MPH, a former leader of the tri-service U.S. Army Veterinary Command is featured in a new advertisement today for a Yes vote on Prop 127.

“Opponents of Prop 127 are deceiving you,” says Col. Pool, a proud NRA member. “Mountain lions are the best tool for controlling Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk. The march of the disease could end deer and hunting. Wild cats bring balance to nature, and as a fair chase hunter and veterinarian, I cannot stomach shooting a treed cat at point blank range.”

You can see the video of U.S. Army Commander Tom Pool (ret.) here.

Opponents make a widely discredited claim in a TV ad mountain lions dropped mule deer from 600,000 to 350,000. But CPW researchers repeatedly over decades have debunked this myth still being recklessly promoted by lion trophy hunters — it’s a fable that dates back to antiquated times used to justify unethical and unscientific killing.

“Opponents are maligning mountain lions as their scapegoats for any excuse to kill them in the most horrific manner,” said Sam Miller, Prop 127 campaign manager. “Science proves lions benefit us and bring balance to nature for Colorado.”

Dr. Pool, whose family still operates a cattle ranch, joins Dan Ashe, former director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Dr. Elaine Leslie of Durango, former Chief of Biological Resources for our National Park Service, in their YES on Prop 127. Wildlife managers call out “sham science” featured in the advertising of the “No on 127” campaign. Prop 127 is a citizen initiative to protect Colorado wild cats from cruel and inhumane trophy hunting and fur trapping. 

Twenty-one additional wildlife scientists (Ph.D. scientists) plus 119 veterinarians in separate letters say YES on Prop 127. 

A leading spokesperson for “No on 127” is a retired Colorado Parks and Wildlife staffer with just a B.S. degree and was with the agency when it permitted spring bear hunting and hounding that orphaned cubs, and unfair baiting of black bears. 

Voters halted those practices, overriding him and the Wildlife Commission that defended those cruel and unsporting practices in a 1992 citizen initiative.

“A YES on 127 protects mountain lions from trophy hunters while allowing management to protect people, pets and livestock. A YES on 127 preserves the balance of nature,” says Ashe in the ad featuring him.

Dr. Pool says CWD’s massive threat to deer and elk hunting is documented, in great detail in a 2024 report from Jim Keen, DVM, PhD, a former USDA veterinarian and infectious disease scientist. That report, the most exhaustive on the topic of CWD and cervid health, reveals that mountain lions play a key role in reducing the spread and the incidence rate of CWD in deer and elk, which is currently infecting 42 out of 51 deer herds and 17 of 42 elk herds in the state. CWD, a fatal neurological disease without a cure, is increasingly recognized as a long-term threat to the state’s billion-dollar-a-year elk and deer hunting season

CWD is “the biggest threat to the future of deer hunting” according to the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, while the National Deer Association calls CWD “the most serious long-term threat to the future of wild deer and deer hunting that we face today”.

“These predators are often seen as competitors with hunters, but they appear to play a vital role in stemming more extreme spread of CWD,” noted Dr. Keen. “In short, if you want to protect hunting and other forms of wildlife-associated recreation associated with deer and elk, then protect mountain lions and allow them to deliver their gratis predator-cleansing services. Mountain lions are a deer and elk hunter’s best friend.”