{"id":135628,"date":"2014-12-09T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebirdersreport.com\/?p=6061"},"modified":"2019-12-23T00:50:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T11:50:04","slug":"wildlife-killing-contests-targeting-nongame-animals-banned-by-california-fish-and-game-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-killing-contests-targeting-nongame-animals-banned-by-california-fish-and-game-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife-killing Contests Targeting Nongame Animals Banned by California Fish and Game Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

VAN NUYS, Calif.\u2014 In response to overwhelming public support for banning wildlife-killing contests, the California Fish and Game Commission voted Wednesday to adopt regulations prohibiting hunting \u201cderbies\u201d targeting species such as coyotes, raccoons and badgers. The ban came after thousands of Californians expressed opposition to the killing competitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful that the commissioners responded to the public\u2019s call for science-based, ethical and ecologically sound stewardship of California\u2019s wildlife,\u201d said Amaroq Weiss, the Center\u2019s West Coast wolf organizer. \u201cBanning contests that reward people, including children, for killing animals is the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few Californians knew that existing state law allowed wildlife-killing contests. That changed in early 2013 after wildlife conservation groups pushed to increase public awareness of an annual \u201ccoyote-drive\u201d killing contest held in Northern California. While wildlife-hunting contests occur throughout the state, the location of the coyote-killing competition sparked additional attention because it was held in Northern California counties frequented by OR-7, the dispersing Oregon wolf who became California\u2019s first confirmed wild wolf in 87 years.<\/p>\n

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Coyote photo by Robin Silver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Outrage over the antiquated killing contests, including the threat to dispersing wolves like OR-7, resulted in public outcry for a statewide ban.<\/p>\n

Under California law species such as coyotes, raccoons, badgers and others are designated as \u201cnongame mammals\u201d or \u201cfurbearers\u201d \u2014 both of which can be killed in any number without limit. The commission\u2019s decision to ban competitions targeting those two categories of animals was based, in part, on its recognition that subjecting the species to contest hunts does not reflect good sportsmanship. The commission\u2019s vote does not ban contest hunts of species that are designated as game mammals, such as deer and elk.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s vote adds a measure of restraint and respect for species that are highly persecuted by some members of society and revered and loved by others,\u201d said Weiss. \u201cThe commission and the state wildlife agency it oversees are required by state law to manage our natural resources, including wildlife, according to ecosystem-based management based on credible science, and these contests don\u2019t come close to meeting those standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional efforts across the country to end wildlife contest-hunts are meeting with success. In response to a lawsuit filed by the Center and allies, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management decided last week to withdraw a permit it had issued to a private party for a predator-killing contest in Idaho. Earlier this year a coyote-killing contest in Oregon was shut down after public outcry, and Washington residents spoke out at a commission hearing against similar contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VAN NUYS, Calif.\u2014 In response to overwhelming public support for banning wildlife-killing contests, the California Fish and Game Commission voted Wednesday to adopt regulations prohibiting hunting \u201cderbies\u201d targeting species such as coyotes, raccoons and badgers. The ban came after thousands of Californians expressed opposition to the killing competitions. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful that the commissioners responded to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2148432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6984,5],"tags":[4691,1972,6966,2419,7892,41,7861],"class_list":["post-135628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-wildlife","tag-california","tag-coyote","tag-killing","tag-larry-jordan","tag-predator","tag-raccoon","tag-wolf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2148432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}