On December 3rd, we made history for wildlife! After a long and hard fought battle, the California Fish and Game Commission voted 4 to 1* in favor of a rule that closes the loopholes permitting prizes and inducements for wildlife killing contests, derbies and tournaments that target nongame mammals and furbearers. Read more here in the Huffington Post.
The Commission received tens of thousands of letters in support of our petition calling for a ban on this cruel practice that awards cash and prizes to those who kill the most and largest coyotes, foxes, bobcats and other wild animals.
As President of the California Fish and Game Commission, Michael Sutton said in this exclusive video message, Project Coyote was a leader in this effort and is being increasingly recognized as a leader in state and federal wildlife management reform. President Sutton commends Project Coyote for using science and education to push our predator advocacy platform. That’s what we do best.
We are already working with allies to repeat this victory in other states and regions across the nation. And in California, this is just the first step in predator management reform. But we need your help to do this!
photo by Jim Robertson
Exposing the Big Game 
Unethical Wildlife Agencies and Governments
Barbaric idiots amongst us, not matter what their titles or rationalizations: It is a violation of public trust and ethics tor agencies, state or federal, in this country or another, to be having killing contest on public land as was going to be the case in ID, which under protests BLM cancelled their permission for the event. It was a contest targeted at wolves and coyotes. It is also 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, such as is happening in the USA, Canada and other countries. 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. There should be no hunting on preserves and state or national parks. We are losing wildlife to encroachment on a large scale. Hunting per se is a major form of encroachment; and is way out of bounds in the areas and conditions described above. 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 and wildlife conservation and protection, not slaughter.
“Barbaric idiots” yep, what a combination of traits we’re dealing with.