Wildlife Coalition Condemns Coyote Killing Tournament as Ethically and Ecologically Indefensible
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Maine - A national
coalition of wildlife advocacy and conservation
organizations representing more than 70,000
Maine citizens is calling for an end to a
coyote killing tournament that is currently
underway in northern Maine. Sponsored by the
Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce,
the killing tournament began Dec. 16 and runs
through Jan. 30, 2010. Prizes are awarded to
those hunters who kill both the most coyotes
and the largest
individuals.
“Slaughtering coyotes
as part of a ‘contest’ is ethically
indefensible, ecologically reckless, counter to
sound scientific wildlife management, and has
no place in the 21st century," said Camilla
Fox, founding director of Project Coyote,
wildlife consultant with the Animal Welfare
Institute, and co-author of Coyotes in Our
Midst. "Coyote killing tournaments tarnish
Maine’s reputation as a state that prides
itself on tourism and wildlife watching,” said
Fox. “It is unbelievable that a regional
Chamber of Commerce is supporting this kind of
scientifically unsound and unconscionable blood
sport.”
Project Coyote has issued a statewide alert urging concerned citizens to contact the Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce (1-888-633-5225) and also Gov. John Baldacci (207-287-3531) to call off the coyote killing tournament in perpetuity. In 2005, Gov. Baldacci came out against a coyote contest hunt in Washington County and directed the state Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife to tell organizers to cancel the event. In Maine, coyotes can legally be hunted year-round in unlimited numbers. Coalition groups have started a citizen’s petition effort to change Maine’s laws to protect coyotes from abuse and cruelty.
"Randomly killing coyotes to supposedly boost deer populations is a sham," said Dr. Marc Bekoff, Project Coyote advisory board member, internationally recognized canid ethologist, and author and editor of more than 22 books including Coyotes: Biology, Behavior and Management. "Coyote killing tournaments are antithetical to conservation biology and ecosystem-based science, and they are a totally ineffective management strategy given the species’ resiliency and ability to biologically rebound," said Bekoff.
"Killing tournaments, disguised as either recreation or wildlife management, are a very poor commentary on those who partake in them," said Daryl DeJoy, executive director of the Wildlife Alliance of Maine. We would like to see Governor Baldacci to emulate the late, great Governor Percival Baxter who felt that Maine's wildlife's should not be wantonly destroyed for recreation or entertainment."
"These events exhibit a blatant disregard
for wildlife and the integrity of ecosystems by
encouraging mass killing for prizes," said
Andrew Page, senior director of the Wildlife
Abuse Campaign at The Humane Society of the
United States. "Killing coyotes will do nothing
to increase the white-tailed deer density or
decrease coyote numbers — it will only advance
an archaic idea that the value of animals is
their dead weight."
Organizations
opposing the killing tournament include Project
Coyote, the Animal Welfare Institute, the
Wildlife Alliance of Maine, The Humane Society
of the United States, The Maine Wolf Coalition,
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, and the Wild Dog
Foundation.
##30##
CONTACTS:
Camilla Fox, Project Coyote, Animal Welfare
Institute; phone 415.690.0338
Marc
Bekoff, University of Colorado, Boulder,
Project Coyote – email: marc.bekoff@gmail.com
(phone number through Camilla Fox)
Daryl
DeJoy, Wildlife Alliance of Maine; phone
207.299.2291
