I absolutely despise the term. ‘Ballot Box Biology’. Definitely used as a dog whistle. Especially last year when special interest groups used it against Prop 127 in Colorado.

there exists an organization called Wild Origins (Formerly Blood Origins) who likes to tout everything they believe as ‘scientifically sound’ who produced several articles and podcasts against the proposition. What’s worse two organizations disguised as wildlife advocacy groups (Colorado wildlife deserves better and HOWL for wildlife) produced several podcasts designed to misinform the public. They screamed much of the same drivel that ‘such decisions aren’t science-based’ and that it’s a ‘slippery slope to ending all hunting’. The infamous Safari Club International even funded such campaigns against the proposition.

Much of them used a popular fallacy among the hunting community that when California ended cougar hunting, conflicts spiraled out of control and depredation kills skyrocketed. Of course this is largely false, as studies have shown California’s rate of conflict is similar to other states where hunting is permitted, and wasn’t even the highest. Secondly the depredation permits were largely being abused on individual years, something the CDFW has now accounted for, which has reduced the amount of lethal depredations.

Unfortunately misinformation won, and Prop 127 was defeated, tarnishing Colorado’s reputation for a state wishing to bring wildlife management into the 20th century.

In this aspect the industrial side of hunting has now become one and the same with big oil.