This week hunters across New Mexico will open fire on coyotes.
It’s all part of a contest — the Third Annual Great Coyote Hunt — that has animal rights activists outraged and pushing for legislation to make these types of events illegal.
“They shoot as many coyotes as they can so it’s purely a numbers game for material profit or financial profit,” said Phil Carter, with Animal Protection of New Mexico. “We cannot allow our state to be so definitely associated with these thrill-killing contests that just celebrate death and destruction of animals.”
Larry’s Gun Shop in Roswell is putting on the contest.
Contestants pay $300 for a two-person team. Other than not killing in city limits, there are few restrictions. Whoever kills the most coyotes wins an assault rifle for each team member.
Event organizers disagree with the activists.
“(It’s) not inhumane at all. These are a nuisance,” said Colby Griffin, a manager at Larry’s Gun Shop.
The gun shop argues that thousands of coyotes cause problems for ranchers and dairy farmers. They said they are just helping out and giving a prize just encourages people to participate in the hunt.
Animal activists are taking their fight to Santa Fe’s Roundhouse. They are drafting up a bill for the 2015 legislative session to outright ban hunting contests and make it a misdemeanor crime.
“This is not real wildlife management, to simply allow contestants to go out and shoot as many coyotes as they can,” said Carter.
Right now at least one lawmaker is interested in sponsoring the bill. In 2013, similar legislation was defeated in the house.
Read more: http://www.koat.com/news/coyote-hunt-continues-to-draw-controversy/29649118#ixzz3Izaa7WnW
Exposing the Big Game 
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/coyote-hunt-continues-to-draw-controversy/
Utah bounty hunters kill 7,041 coyotes in a year
Deer populations are rising, though removing predators isn’t the only reason
Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qEBiQN
Fire the Wildlife Agencies (USFWS, Interior, state agencies, USDA Wildlife Services, BLM)
The US government has long been in the wildlife killing business. It offered bounties on predators, poisoned and gassed prairie dogs, allowed the near extinction of bison, prairie dogs, black footed ferret, the wolf (wolf bounties), wolverine, and marginalized the grizzly, lion, and many others. The war on coyotes has been unrelenting. Hunters and ranchers, bedfellows of the wildlife agencies nearly wiped out most wildlife. With the advent of wildlife agency hunting regulations, the hunter has been somewhat contained; and now even count themselves as “conservationists” because they have essentially farmed game sport (recreational killing opportunities) animals and marginalized predators on the erroneous rationale of less predators to share game with the more game (recreational killing opportunities). Instead of an emphasis on wilderness and wildlife ecology, USDA Wildlife Services kills nearly 4 million animals a year and state agencies millions more in recreational killing opportunities and “management”. State wildlife agencies use hunters to “manage” “sporting” game and predators. Ranchers may tolerate big bird and other sport game birds, elk, bison and deer and antelope; but are very hostile to predators. Ranchers and farmers destroy wildlife habitat with the plow and grazing not only on private land but ever more and more on public land facilitated by the US government in leased grazing, leased farming and leases to extraction industries avenues. Encroachers on public land often, in turn, adding insult added to injury, asks the federal government, such as Wildlife Service, to kill animals that are convincing their encroachment. Conservation efforts and new agencies such as ESA and EPA and private conservation agencies have and are battling for balanced ecologies, the predators, and many animals of no concern to sportsmen, ranchers and farmers, and extraction industries and development interests. Agencies, like the USFWS often cave into ranchers hunters, state wildlife agencies, conservative state legislatures, a government tradition of really prioritizing those interests. The arguments that threatens remaining wilderness and wildlife is as old as civilization, making a buck by the traditional enemies of wildlife. What is not appreciated enough is what little is left: In the US roughly 2.6 % in the lower 48 and another 2.5 % in Alaska; and this is under continuing and unremitting pressure from, guess what, the traditional enemies of wilderness and wildlife, still too often facilitated by the wildlife agencies. Private conservation agencies often find themselves in conflict with wildlife agencies who should be on their side and the side of preserving wilderness, balanced wildlife ecology, and the predators who are essential to the balanced wildlife ecology. The wildlife agencies, state and federal, need firing and revamping to emphasize wildlife preservation, wildlife viewing, and a heritage of wilderness and wildlife in what is left of the available habitat. There is something terribly wrong when we see wildlife agencies aligning with ranchers, farmers, “sportsmen”, conservative state legislatures. It is time for major upheavals of them, their agendas, their heads and replacing them with priorities on preserving, recovering, protecting what is left of wilderness and wildlife, not siding with the traditional enemies of wildlife and wilderness (ranching, hunters, conservative state legislatures and populace, extraction industries, and development and such parochial ilk that echoes their sentiments)
It is inappropriate, unethical and violation of the public trust mandate to be hunting wolves, killing predators (lions, wolves, bears, coyotes), and manipulating normal prey-predator relationships, established through millenniums of time to follow the unethical and mythological hunter myth of bolstering ungulate populations for hunters to kill. This amounts to game farming in the wilderness and is a violation of the trust put in state and federal wildlife agencies to protect the natural balance of wild places, which is basically to leave them alone and protect them from humans. Wildlife viewing is usually much more remunerative than wildlife killing. The American public pays for wilderness, wildlife, preserves and national parks much more than hunters and trappers. Nationally, hunters only represent 6% of the population and fishermen 15%. It may be higher in Alaska, as it is in a couple of western states, but not that much higher. Wolf viewing alone in Yellowstone brings in $35 million to the states surrounding Yellowstone. It is my understanding that the Denali wolf packs have already been diminished by hunters outside the park, indicating that there should be a buffer zone around Denali as there should be around Yellowstone, Glacier and other national parks, game preserves, and sanctuaries. We are losing wildlife to encroachment on a large scale. Hunting is a form of encroachment. People come to states that still have significant wilderness to see wilderness and the wildlife that should not be diminished by an unholy alliance between hunters, trappers, their fees and sports game targets and wildlife agencies. The role of wildlife agencies: wilderness.
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/coyote-hunt-continues-to-draw-controversy/
Utah bounty hunters kill 7,041 coyotes in a year
Deer populations are rising, though removing predators isn’t the only reason
Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qEBiQN
Well, this bad news comes right on the heels of BLM’s announcement that they have approved the Idaho wolf & coyote derby scheduled for early January. I just finished screaming and shrieking. How the hell do we stop these perverts? They’re everywhere.