California bans coyote hunts that offer prizes

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

California bans coyote hunts that offer prizes
By SCOTT SMITH, Associated Press | December 3, 2014 | Updated: December 3, 2014 3:59pm

California officials on Wednesday banned coyote hunting contests that have sparked a culture clash between wildlife advocates and ranchers who offer cash and other prizes to marksmen who killed the most animals.

It was the first ban of its kind in the nation, according to Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, which petitioned the state to end the popular contests that occur almost every month in California or nearby states.

The vote by the state Fish and Game Commission allows hunters to shoot as many of the predators as they wish year-round but stops the awarding of prizes.

Commission vice president Jack Baylis said the state also needs to limit how many predators a hunter is permitted to kill while respecting responsible hunters and allowing ranchers to manage their livestock.

"Awarding prizes for wildlife killing contests is both unethical and inconsistent with our modern understand of natural systems," Michael Sutton, president of the commission, added during the meeting in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles.

Wayne Raupe, president of the California Bowmen Hunters/State Archery Association, defended the contests as a way to control coyote numbers.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/California-coyote-killing-contests-face-ban-5931487.php

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[center]

Wayne Raupe

Loves to kill animals with his bow.[/center]

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. Wish New Mexico would

http://m.koat.com/news/coyote-hunt-continues-to-draw-controversy/29649118

http://www.projectcoyote.org/action/actionbancontentsnm.html

[upaloopa]

2. You can still get a nut off shooting them you just

can't win a prize.
Of course gunners still have to kill them for what ever reason that I am sure will get posted here soon.

[GGJohn]

9. Well, I do kill them when they go after my sheep, chickens, pigs,

otherwise, I leave them alone.

[Skittles]

3. as if cowards need any incentive

[Plucketeer]

4. Killers

jus' gotta have sumpin' to KILL!

[Leontius]

5. Living in the East I say shoot the fuckers until we can reestablish viable wolf populations.

[ozone_man]

15. Shooting hunters is radical!

I totally agree about restoring wolf populations. Hunters hate wolves because they threaten their position as the dominant predator. Coyotes occupy the ecological niche that wolves have left. Shooting coyotes simply increases their fertility rates. I say to let nature take it's course. Bobcats and coyotes are thriving for a reason, they take the old and weak, and strengthen the various prey species. Hunters go for the strongest, the trophies, exactly against how nature works.

Maybe there is a less severe option than shooting the hunters? I guess California is leading the way.

[seveneyes]

6. Good to see the state trying to save the coyote

Coyotes only kill unwanted cats and dogs and other small wild critters. It all makes perfect sense.

[hughee99]

7. How does a coyote know if a cat or dog is wanted or not? n/t

[seveneyes]

8. We should get comfortable just accepting which killers know which animals to kill

Like a castle in its corner in a medieval game foreseeing terrible trouble and staying just the same.

[GGJohn]

10. Like hell they do.

I'ved lost lambs, pigs, calves to coyotes and I will shoot any animal going after my animals, but if they're just passing through, I'll give them a free pass.

[candelista]

18. Ever been attacked by a coyote?

I was. It changes one's attitude toward these creatures.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. good

[ileus]

12. We've had to shift from deer hunting to coyote hunting here in Virginia.

In the 70's there were few deer, and populations finally increased in the 80's and 90's, now we're back to the 70's in my area with very few deer here and there.

Hopefully we can get a hand on the coyote population...

[truthisfreedom]

17. You're lucky! We have so many deer in Southeastern Minnesota that it's hard to find anyone

who isn't related to a Lyme's victim! They're both varmints in my book... deer are a road hazard as well as being tick magnets and coyotes are just plain scary and dangerous and not much use with all the hawks, vultures and eagles we have around.

[Sunlei]

13. also ban the practice of using livestock carcasses to attract coyotes/bears/wolves to shoot.

This baiting is how old killer nugent runs his bear killing 'adventures' and other 'hunter-guides' attract, for example-the Yellowstone wolves to their personal property full of sheep and dead sheep.

This practice 'trains' wildlife to seek out livestock as a food source. Hunters effect real ranchers. The livestock carcasses also increase the numbers/breeding of 'well fed' coyotes. Then when they stop providing easy food, ranchers get hit much harder.

Our society doesn't look kindly on the general public when they feed bears and coyotes. Why do 'hunters' get a pass on 'shooting fish in a barrel' . get out there off your rear ends and really HUNT.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Killing Wolves Can Increase Livestock Attacks

Killing Wolves Can Increase Livestock Attacks
Dec 4, 2014 04:30 PM ET // by Richard Farrell

A recent study came to a counter-intuitive conclusion: The more wolves killed to protect livestock, the greater the frequency of livestock attacks.

Washington State University wildlife biologist Rob Wielgus and data analyst Kaylie Peebles wanted to test the efficacy of lethal control programs used on predators. Such programs are commonly used to keep predator populations under control and livestock safe, but the scientists say, in a release, that they represent a "widely accepted, but untested, hypothesis."

The researchers found that with every wolf killed the chance of livestock attacks increases significantly. They noted that this probability trend line continues upward until 25 percent of wolves in a population are killed, at which point livestock depredation begins to level off.

Wielgus and Peebles write that such a level of lethal wolf population control "is unsustainable and cannot be carried out indefinitely if federal relisting of wolves is to be avoided." For the lethal control of wolves to result in the protection of livestock, then, the animals would wind up right back on the government endangered list.

The researchers studied 25 years of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services lethal control data on wolves across Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. It turned out that with each wolf killed, the odds of sheep depredations rose 4 percent and for cattle deaths 5 to 6 percent in the following year. And, when 20 wolves were killed, they noted that livestock deaths doubled.

More:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/endangered-species/killing-wolves-can-increase-livestock-attacks-141204.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

[NickB79]

16. I've called in and shot two in the past 4 years

Very intelligent, much harder to hunt than deer or ducks. Maybe they're less coy in California than the upper Midwest though. Their population is very high around Twin Cities.

That said, I agree with the state; giving prizes to whoever shoots the most coyotes on your land comes off as unethical and should be banned simply because it looks awful. Banning the practice shouldn't have any impact on a rancher looking to protect his livestock. Most hunters beg and offer to pay landowners for permission to hunt their land as it is.