Will California coyote-killing contests stop?

This video from the USA is called Living With Wildlife: Coyotes.

California Coyote-Killing Contests Could Be Banned In First-In-Nation Move

December 3, 2014 12:03 AM

FRESNO, Calif. – Organized coyote hunts that award prizes to the top marksman have sparked a culture clash in California between wildlife advocates who value the animals as an essential part of the landscape and people who view coyotes as wily varmints to be hunted down to protect livestock.

The derbies award shooters who bag the tallest pile of coyote carcasses with up to $500 or prizes such as belt buckles, camouflage hunting gear and rifles. On Wednesday, the California Fish and Game Commission will consider banning prize hunts for coyotes as well as foxes and bobcats, which also are legal to kill year round in unlimited numbers.

The ban would be the first in the nation, according to Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, which petitioned the state to end coyote hunts for prizes.

The hunts are a cruel throwback to the days before dog- and cock-fighting were banned, said Fox. “We should also ban wildlife-killing contests for the same reasons,” she said. “It’s immoral, reprehensible and something that should be part of our history books.” …

Coyote hunting happens in most states across the country with no bag limit, but Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said prize hunts are most common in the western states. In Idaho, environmentalists blocked a wolf and coyote derby from happening next month on vast wilderness areas controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. …

Coyote advocates called on the commission to ban prize hunts on grounds they do not reflect good sportsmanship. Arguing there’s no proof the hunts prevent livestock losses, they say coyotes play an important role in nature, feeding on rodents and dead animals.

The call for a ban was spurred in part by the fear that coyote hunters could mistakenly kill gray wolves, which this year were listed as endangered in California. Gray wolves were hunted to extinction almost a century ago in California, but in the past three years, a GPS-outfitted wolf known as OR-7 has been crossing from Oregon into Northern California.