http://www.koat.com/news/game-and-fish-hunting-contests-dont-put-dent-in-coyote-population/29730964
By Regina Ruiz
In less than 24 hours, coyotes will be the target of a controversial hunting contest in New Mexico.
The two-day contest begins Saturday morning.
Animal rights activists have been pushing for a law to make such events illegal, but that won’t stop this weekend’s event from occurring.
It may not seem like coyotes are a big threat to day-to-day life in New Mexico, but they are for ranchers and dairy farmers in the state. Those in favor of the event feel the coyotes are a nuisance. Those who aren’t don’t feel it is legitimate wildlife management to allow contestants to go out and shoot as many coyotes as they can.
The New Mexico Game and Fish Department doesn’t regulate the hunting of coyotes, and coyotes aren’t protected or endangered animals.
Game and Fish officials said contestants may not even be making a dent in the coyote population, and don’t believe the contests have a negative impact. About 10,000 coyotes are hunted every year, according to Game and Fish. That’s about 8 percent of the total coyote population in New Mexico.
Activists have emailed the Governor’s Office calling for the contests to be stopped. The emails were referred to game and fish.
Contestants pay $300 for a two-person team.
Winners get assault rifles. The contest is sponsored by Larry’s Gun Shop in Roswell.
Exposing the Big Game 
That isn’t the point of stopping them, that they don’t put a dent in the coyote population (so they say). It’s a crude, backward and cruel activity which shows the participants are indifferent to or incapable of perceiving suffering.
Utah has hired professional shooters to kill coyotes and have killed over 7000. It seems like a violation of public trust for state and wildlife agencies and BLM and national forests to be allowing , condoning, mass killing of wildlife for entertainment or to drive down populations which is probably counter productive. Idaho and New Mexico and other states have had killing contests of wolves and coyotes. It seems that the federal agencies and state agencies are out of control and out of sync with the general public and are just working for ranchers, farmers, hunters and trappers. What do contests like this say about the human race? Major elements of us are as barbaric as ever. It does show that major elements of the human population are, my opinion, subhuman. Looking at what humans are doing to animals around the world and to the environment points to the Anthropocine Extinction. Mankind is a disease of the Earth.
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/coyote-hunt-continues-to-draw-controversy/
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/controversial-idaho-wolf-contest-hunt-approved-angering-conservationists/
If the coyotes aren’t regulated (or managed), how do they know how many there are?
Good question.
Chris, You are so right. Several years ago I questioned the NM Game Commissioners about the bobcat population, asking them if they knew what the population was (I knew they did not, but wanted to see how they would react). They took turns looking quizzically at one another, no one having a clue, shrugging their shoulders.
This just cemented my disgust for these “management” agencies. They were set up, and remain, political bodies whose purpose is to supply wild animals for hunting & trapping. Any other reason is pretense. The trouble is, the majority of people accept their lies, and the “media” always genuflects to them, as some kind of “experts.”
The problem is that humans are acting like…humans. This has been going on since Homo became bipedal, able to use its arms/hands–to make and use weapons. Coyotes are not the problem of course. The problem is the livestock/hunting industry–they really are one. They should, at the very least, be taken off all public lands. Here in New Mexico, we have Sen. Martin Heinrich, big game hunter and proponent of public lands ranching— the darling of the Democrats, and many environmental and wildlife groups. What does this tell us about our chances of ever saving wildlife in any substantial number? The whole thing is insane, and certainly not protecting wildlife or wild places. Apparently, there is a severe lack of intestinal fortitude and/or understanding of who the real enemies are, to do anything to reverse this insanity.
http://www.foranimals.org