A Colorado native, BHA Life Member Dan Parkinson has always loved wild places and the wild creatures that live there. Dan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Colorado State University with a degree in Wildlife Biology. During college he was a technician for the Colorado Division of Wildlife participating in mule deer census projects on the West Slope. While earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, he also earned a Masters degree in Physiology, studying the effects of colostrum deficiencies in captive mule deer fawns at the CDOW research facility in Ft Collins.

Dan and his wife Laurie moved to Durango in 1982, where they’ve raised two children, Tommy and Erin, and built a family cabin on the nearby Pine River.

Dan worked for fifteen years as a small-animal house-call veterinarian serving a large area of southwest Colorado. Later, as owner and managing veterinarian of Riverview Animal Hospital, Dan developed a special interest in pain management. He now lectures around the country, assisting veterinarians in efforts to improve patient comfort and safety.

A fly fisherman and avid traditional bowhunter, Dan treasures time spent in the backcountry with good friends and family, in pursuit of elk, mule deer, turkey, challenge and adventure. Dan recognizes that in the wild, unlike with our pets, an individual animal’s comfort and safety cannot be guaranteed. The essence of wildlife is living, and dying, wild. We are proud to have Dan as a Life Member of BHA, an organization that promotes ethical hunting and fishing while working to protect and steward the natural places needed to keep wildlife wild, and the hunt traditional and true.