The Indefensible Violence of Wildlife Killing Contests
APRIL 16, 2021
BY SAMANTHA BRUEGGER
Wildlife Killing Contests isas intendedextremely difficult to watch. The recently released twenty-five-minute documentary, produced by Filipe DeAndrade and Brian Moghari in partnership with Project Coyote, contains graphic footage of animals being callously slain for entertainment and prize money, only to be added to piles of carcasses used for vain photo opportunities. As gruesome and stomach-turning as this footage is, the most sickening part is the simple fact that wildlife killing contests remain legal in over forty states, including across public lands.
Wildlife killing contests are prize-driven competitions to see who can kill the most target animalssuch as bobcat, wolves, foxes, pumas, and, most of all, coyotesin a given period of time. Offering the perspective from hunters, historians, activists, policymakers, and ranchers, this film makes clear that these brutal events targeting native wildlife constitute an unethical bloodsport, often motivated by prize money, with no scientific basis in ecosystem management.
Debunked and specious claims of predator management promoted by contest organizers and participants are convenient justifications for these killing contests that hold no scientific merit. Peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated that not only do these contests serve no legitimate ecosystem management purpose, they can actually exacerbate livestock depredation and human-wildlife conflict.
Throughout the documentary, we are faced with scenes of senseless and wasteful violence. Whats the plan? one contestant in the film asks another as they scout the Texas backcountry in the 2020 West Texas Big Bobcat contest, which paid the winning team over $50,000. Kill st, get money, his fellow contestant responds. Both laugh. As the film progresses, we watch as they bring down various species, eventually throwing the animals into a pile of carcasses in the bed of their truck.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/16/the-indefensible-violence-of-wildlife-killing-contests/
multigraincracker
(32,720 posts)I dont get it. They dont eat em, so I dont get the point of it.
MontanaFarmer
(630 posts)with the keen senses of wild animals, i deeply respect and enjoy the organic table fare they provide. I respect the animals i hunt. Coyote contests and the like turn my stomach. It's awful. It's indefensible. It feels uniquely American in the most negative way possible. What a joke.
msongs
(67,441 posts)MontanaFarmer
(630 posts)What end to their time in nature, on earth, do you envision for them? There are no easy ways to die in the natural world, and dying by the hand of a skilled hunter is quite probably the most humane, quickest, most painless way an animal can die. Which they all do. All of them. Inevitably. I'm proud of the way i hunt, I'm proud that hunters fund conservation efforts, and I'm proud of the north American model of wildlife management; a system unlike any other anywhere in the world. I'll have this debate with you if you want, but you'll have to come with something better than "i wish the animals could shoot back."
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,480 posts)You eat what you kill.
And you respect the animals you kill and the ones you don't kill. I respect that in you.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,480 posts)Monsters that think mass animal carnage
Is not a horrible evil morally repugnant thing.
I want to have an open hunt contest that's different .
The goal would be to kill as many motherfucking animal murderers and abusers as I could kill, for the prize.
Have it open for all animal lovers who hate animal abusers and sociopaths. The animal murderers would be let loose naked without weapons,like the creatures they murder.
Throw thier dying bodies in a pile on the back of the truck..because they are human waste.
Maybe we could drive these murderous psychopath pieces of shit to extinction.
Just a thought
Anyone that goes to this sort of contest is lower than lowest scum in the Marianas trench. Most likely a sociopath and I despise sociopaths..
These vile contests need to be banned and be made illegal.period.
All over this world.
Anyone caught hosting or participating in mass animal killing contests get mandatory life sentences with no parole.No way out.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)I'm with you. Ending any life for pleasure & spectacle is psychopathic.
Response to I_UndergroundPanther (Reply #4)
fwvinson This message was self-deleted by its author.