Animal welfare activists are asking Arizona voters to ban the sport hunting and trapping of mountain lions, bobcats and other big cats in the state.
The Arizona Republic reports that Arizonans for Wildlife will begin collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that the group filed paperwork for on Monday.
The group says it wants to stop the killing of wild cats for only their head or fur. The initiative also would end the use of steel-jawed traps, dog packs and other cat-hunting methods.
The group needs to collect more than 150,000 signatures by July in order to get the initiative on the ballot in November 2018.
Opponents say the mountain lion population in the state isn't endangered and it's safely regulated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
