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Here is the story from the Billings Gazette. Not that well-written and I guess I don't have a problem with it, with the exception that it was sensationalized a bit by calling it a Coyote Killing Contest. It is a Coyote Calling Contest. She could have called it a Coyote Hunt even; but since the reporter is from California originally, I guess that would have been too much to hope for.
She also did not include the statement I made that Montana's have a Constitutional right to hunt.
January 6, 2006
Last modified January 6, 2006 - 12:38 am
Humane Society critical of coyote killing contest
By CLAIR JOHNSON
Of The Gazette Staff
An annual coyote killing contest set for this weekend in Fallon County will go on despite objections from a national animal protection group that the event is unethical.
The Humane Society of the United States, headquartered in Washington, D.C., sent a letter to the Baker Chamber of Commerce, a sponsor of the event, expressing its dismay over the sponsorship. The contest exhibits "a blatant disregard for wildlife and the integrity of ecosystems,'' the society said.
Casey Pheiffer, of the Humane Society, asked the chamber to cancel the event, saying that sponsoring "this reprehensible event may result in a negative view of Baker by the general public.''
Carla Rustad, chamber president, and Karen Leibee, an organizer, said the event will not be canceled.
Rustad said she did not receive the society's letter but that "everybody is entitled to their own opinion."
"They don't live in this area," Rustad said. "They don't deal with the same things these people deal with.''
It was unclear why Rustad may not have received the letter, which was dated Dec. 22.
"We have way too many coyotes,'' Leibee said. "What we're trying to do is control them, not eliminate them.''
The event, called the "Coyote Calling Contest - Coyote Hunt,'' runs from 7 p.m. today to 2 p.m. Sunday. Sign-up and a rules meeting will be held at the Plevna Bar in Plevna. Two- or three-person teams then will hunt coyotes with landowner permission.
According to the rules, snow machines and airplanes are prohibited. So is alcohol. Entry fees will be added to a $1,000 purse that will go to the four teams with the most coyotes. Participants can keep the carcasses or sell them to a buyer for the fur.
The contest has been held for several years, Leibee said. Last year, 96 people participated and shot about 55 coyotes, she said.
Pheiffer's letter said the argument that the killing contest reduces coyote problems with farm animals and deer is based on faulty assumptions. Despite widespread extermination programs by the federal and local governments, coyotes continue to thrive, Pheiffer said.
Heidi Prescott, the Humane Society's senior vice president of campaigns, said this week that the effect of killing contests is the opposite of reducing animal populations. Studies have shown that coyotes can respond to lethal control by breeding at a younger age, she said.
Livestock guard animals and high fencing have proved effective in reducing livestock kills by coyotes, the society said. Removing livestock carcasses and sheltering sick or injured animals also prevents coyotes from preying on livestock.
And contest kills, Pheiffer said, are "inherently unethical'' and "desensitize individuals by making the act of killing secondary to the objective of winning a prize.''
Coyotes are called by using a distress call and are shot when they come to investigate the sound, Prescott said. "It's not hunting,'' she said. "The nature of killing animals in a contest format is definitely something hunters and nonhunters alike find reprehensible."
Contest kills are a priority of the society, which keeps a database of such events around the country, Prescott said. The society heard about the Fallon County event from one of its members in Montana, she said.
"I have to say this is a new experience for us - finding a Chamber of Commerce that is promoting such a cruel activity,'' Prescott said. Such events typically are sponsored by gun clubs or other organizations, she said.
The Baker Chamber of Commerce has helped sponsor the event every year, Rustad said. "It brings people to the community.'' The event is part tourism and part predator control, she said.
"We do have an overabundance of coyotes. Coyotes are a problem for livestock owners,'' she said.
The event began a few years ago because the community was having problems with coyotes, Leibee said. The state was going to send in a trapper with a helicopter and then tax residents, she said. So the community held a meeting and decided to control coyotes through a contest, she said.
The event is conducted with landowner permission, and a game warden attends the rules meeting, Leibee said.
Many places have calling contests, which allow both sportsmen and the town to take part, Leibee said.
"We are a rural, isolated area,'' Leibee said. Landowners do have dogs to protect livestock, but that's not the total answer to predator problems, she said. And it is impractical and expensive to install big fences in such a vast area, she said.
The Chamber of Commerce, which depends on ranchers and farmers to keep businesses going, sponsors the event to help ranchers protect their livelihood, Leibee said. More than a dozen other businesses also sponsor the contest.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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She also did not include the statement I made that Montana's have a Constitutional right to hunt.
January 6, 2006
Last modified January 6, 2006 - 12:38 am
Humane Society critical of coyote killing contest
By CLAIR JOHNSON
Of The Gazette Staff
An annual coyote killing contest set for this weekend in Fallon County will go on despite objections from a national animal protection group that the event is unethical.
The Humane Society of the United States, headquartered in Washington, D.C., sent a letter to the Baker Chamber of Commerce, a sponsor of the event, expressing its dismay over the sponsorship. The contest exhibits "a blatant disregard for wildlife and the integrity of ecosystems,'' the society said.
Casey Pheiffer, of the Humane Society, asked the chamber to cancel the event, saying that sponsoring "this reprehensible event may result in a negative view of Baker by the general public.''
Carla Rustad, chamber president, and Karen Leibee, an organizer, said the event will not be canceled.
Rustad said she did not receive the society's letter but that "everybody is entitled to their own opinion."
"They don't live in this area," Rustad said. "They don't deal with the same things these people deal with.''
It was unclear why Rustad may not have received the letter, which was dated Dec. 22.
"We have way too many coyotes,'' Leibee said. "What we're trying to do is control them, not eliminate them.''
The event, called the "Coyote Calling Contest - Coyote Hunt,'' runs from 7 p.m. today to 2 p.m. Sunday. Sign-up and a rules meeting will be held at the Plevna Bar in Plevna. Two- or three-person teams then will hunt coyotes with landowner permission.
According to the rules, snow machines and airplanes are prohibited. So is alcohol. Entry fees will be added to a $1,000 purse that will go to the four teams with the most coyotes. Participants can keep the carcasses or sell them to a buyer for the fur.
The contest has been held for several years, Leibee said. Last year, 96 people participated and shot about 55 coyotes, she said.
Pheiffer's letter said the argument that the killing contest reduces coyote problems with farm animals and deer is based on faulty assumptions. Despite widespread extermination programs by the federal and local governments, coyotes continue to thrive, Pheiffer said.
Heidi Prescott, the Humane Society's senior vice president of campaigns, said this week that the effect of killing contests is the opposite of reducing animal populations. Studies have shown that coyotes can respond to lethal control by breeding at a younger age, she said.
Livestock guard animals and high fencing have proved effective in reducing livestock kills by coyotes, the society said. Removing livestock carcasses and sheltering sick or injured animals also prevents coyotes from preying on livestock.
And contest kills, Pheiffer said, are "inherently unethical'' and "desensitize individuals by making the act of killing secondary to the objective of winning a prize.''
Coyotes are called by using a distress call and are shot when they come to investigate the sound, Prescott said. "It's not hunting,'' she said. "The nature of killing animals in a contest format is definitely something hunters and nonhunters alike find reprehensible."
Contest kills are a priority of the society, which keeps a database of such events around the country, Prescott said. The society heard about the Fallon County event from one of its members in Montana, she said.
"I have to say this is a new experience for us - finding a Chamber of Commerce that is promoting such a cruel activity,'' Prescott said. Such events typically are sponsored by gun clubs or other organizations, she said.
The Baker Chamber of Commerce has helped sponsor the event every year, Rustad said. "It brings people to the community.'' The event is part tourism and part predator control, she said.
"We do have an overabundance of coyotes. Coyotes are a problem for livestock owners,'' she said.
The event began a few years ago because the community was having problems with coyotes, Leibee said. The state was going to send in a trapper with a helicopter and then tax residents, she said. So the community held a meeting and decided to control coyotes through a contest, she said.
The event is conducted with landowner permission, and a game warden attends the rules meeting, Leibee said.
Many places have calling contests, which allow both sportsmen and the town to take part, Leibee said.
"We are a rural, isolated area,'' Leibee said. Landowners do have dogs to protect livestock, but that's not the total answer to predator problems, she said. And it is impractical and expensive to install big fences in such a vast area, she said.
The Chamber of Commerce, which depends on ranchers and farmers to keep businesses going, sponsors the event to help ranchers protect their livelihood, Leibee said. More than a dozen other businesses also sponsor the contest.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
Sign up for home delivery of The Gazette
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
