Wildlife killing contests bring people together in the name of death and suffering, and that’s why many states are banning the disgusting tradition altogether.
Source: HSUS/YouTube
Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont, and Washington have all banned wildlife killing contests, and now New York. Why? Because they are widely considered as exceptionally cruel and shameful. Even many hunters are against these contests, calling the practices used in them “unsportsmanlike.”
These contests are tournaments of death. In them, hunters are incentivized with prizes for killing the most animals, the biggest animals, the smallest animals, and so on. Mama coyotes are killed, leaving their pups to die from starvation, predators, or exposure to the elements. Foxes’ bodies are piled high on top of each other. Bobcats are lured out using fake calls or terrifying dogs that flush them out.
Not only are the methods used during these contests despicable and the scale of the killing horrendous; but the reasons these contests were created aren’t even legitimate. Supporters of wildlife killing contests claim that they keep wildlife populations balanced and regulated. But research tells us that mass killing of predators is ineffective in wildlife management, and only causes harmful patterns of breeding, migration, and ecosystem disruption.
Please sign this petition to protect precious wildlife in New Jersey!
This article by Mathew Davis was first published by One Green Planet on 7 January 2024. Image Credit: Rudolf_Prchlik/Shutterstock.
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