Predator hunts are commerical, unregulated
To the editor:
There are more and more predator hunting contests. These organized hunts, sponsored by businesses and hunting organizations, are unregulated. They show disregard for the intelligence, beauty, complexity, and spirit of the individual wild creature as well as their populations and role in our ecosystem.
Commercial hunting and sale of wildlife are prohibited under the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, yet these predator contests pay individuals for the largest, smallest and most killed. The North American Model also teaches that sound science is essential to managing and sustaining wildlife. There is no scientific basis for these contests.
At the least, participants and sponsors lack empathy and fail to resist peer and political pressure that deem these cruel and destructive activities acceptable and even family fun. Fair chase and ethical hunting, for the most part, are practices of the past. Night vision equipment, unlimited baiting, high-powered weapons, and recorded predator calls indistinguishable from animal voices in nature are used to lure and take the lives of massive numbers of sentient beings: coyotes, red foxes, and bobcats.
As Oliver Starr put it, “Any contest with the goal of killing as many wild animals as possible is an obscenity and crime against nature.”
Jackie Winkowski
Gwinn