As a hunter, rancher, veterinarian and lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, you may think I am an unlikely supporter of Proposition 127. But understand I am a board-certified specialist in veterinary preventive medicine, and I pay heed to sound science. The long-term viability of deer and elk hunting is seriously threatened by the dangerous spread of chronic wasting disease, and mountain lions are the best and only answer to the further advance of this incurable disease.

The first confirmed CWD cases occurred in Colorado in 1967 in a government research facility in Fort Collins. It is thought sheep infected with scrapie (a prion disease that had been known since the 1700s) resulted in transmission to captive deer and then to wild deer (interacting with the captives). That scourge has spread to cervids in 34 states and provinces.

It is a not treatable, 100% fatal neurological disease decimating deer and elk. It is a prion disease, like mad cow disease, only much worse. CWD prions are in all tissues and can survive in soil and plants long after the carcass of a CWD-killed deer or elk has decomposed.

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Prions are simply proteins with odd shapes (stereochemistry). Adequately cooked venison will be free of the bacteria and viruses the animal might have carried. This is not the case with nearly indestructible prions. There have been several cases of hunters developing the human form of CWD — Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) — after consuming venison infected with the prion. They died within a year of diagnosis. Perhaps because of cases like this, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly advises hunters not to consume CWD-infected animals.

Although CWD originated in Colorado and has fanned out across the continent — mainly to the east, where there are no mountain lions as a bulwark — there are large parts of western Colorado CWD-free after almost 60 years.

There can be only one logical explanation for the lack of CWD prevalence: the mountain lions, who have honed their skills as deer hunters for nearly 8 million years. They have the ability to detect that first false move, that uncoordinated step, that indicates something is wrong. Lions do not contract the disease, and extraordinarily, their gastrointestinal system is able to deactivate the prion so it does not become infectious in the grass or soil. CWD spreads seven times more in soil than in deer-to-deer contact.

Where we have lions, we have almost no CWD, and where there are no lions it spreads rapidly. We cannot afford to sacrifice 15% or 20% of our lion population each year to trophy hunters. We need every last one of those lions.

There are no vaccines or treatment for CWD. Our best response is to let mountain lions conduct their daily predation.The trophy hunters are focusing on the lions we need most — the most experienced and mature males. Those are the lions most capable of taking down infected deer and elk, and the trophy hunters are impairing their work and allowing CWD to gain a foothold.

Gov. Ronald Reagan halted trophy hunting of mountain lions 52 years ago in California. Voters affirmed his good instincts 32 years ago, and the lion population has been stable across the decades. Only recently was the first CWD infected deer been discovered in California, and lions are likely to arrest any further spread.

Opponents of 127 are shooting themselves in the foot by opposing the policy to offer more protections for lions. We must give up killing 500 lions each year to enable us to continue the harvesting of tens of thousands of deer and elk. That form of hunting brings hundreds of millions in economic activity to Colorado, most of it in rural Colorado.

Ending trophy hunting of mountain lions is not an assault on hunting, or I certainly would not support it. I spent 26 years in the Army, and I commanded the U.S. Army Veterinary Command. I wrote peer-reviewed publications on tuberculosis and dengue fever. I should qualify as a government expert, and I insist these lions are the best chance to preserve herds of deer and elk for all Coloradans, including hunters.

Please vote YES on Prop 127.

Col. Thomas Pool, DVM., MPH., DACVPM, earned his master’s degree in public health from Harvard University, and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Oklahoma State University. He is a 30-year diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. He spent 26 years in the U.S. Army, and served as commander of the U.S. Army Veterinary Command, a worldwide, tri-service command.