In April, the Prohibit Wildlife Killing Contests Act (HR 7398) was introduced in the House by Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) to bar organizing, sponsoring, conducting, or participating in most types of wildlife killing contests on more than 500 million acres of US public lands.
Each year, thousands of ecologically important native carnivores and other wildlife are killed during these competitions. Such contests are cruel, violate fundamental hunting principles, and undermine science-based wildlife management. The bill would require five federal agencies—the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service—to enact regulations within a year to ban wildlife killing contests on lands they manage.