Project Coyote release dated 4/10/14
We were there testifying in support of this ban on your behalf ~ and now we need your help to push for additional protections for wildlife statewide!
Join Project Coyote and allies at the upcoming California Fish and Game Commission meeting in Ventura on April 16th to show your support for wildlife. Two important issues will be deliberated that day: a proposed ban on wildlife killing contests that Project Coyote put forth and the listing of wolves under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).The Commission will be accepting public testimony on both issues.
There will be a pre-hearing rally for wolves and wildlife where Project Coyote representatives will speak. We hope you can join us!
What: California Fish and Game Commission meeting & pre-hearing rally
When: Wednesday, April 16, rally begins at 7:45 am, followed by the Commission meeting at 8:30 am
Where: Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach Hotel, 450 East Harbor Blvd., Ventura, CA
(Rally will be held outside of the Crown Plaza and meeting inside.)
More information here.
Please also sign our Change.org petition in support of banning wildlife killing contests here.
If you are unable to attend the Commission's meeting, please submit comments favoring the wildlife killing contest ban (please see talking points below). A second meeting will be held on June 4th in Fortuna, CA where the public will be able to weigh in on this issue again.
Contact:
California Fish and Game Commission
P.O. Box 944209
Sacramento, CA 94244-2090
fgc@fgc.ca.gov
Please cc your letters to California Department of Fish & Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham at director@wildlife.ca.gov and to Project Coyote atinfo@projectcoyote.org as we are tracking the letters sent.
Urge the Commission to permanently ban wildlife killing contests statewide! It's time we reform and modernize wildlife management in California by moving toward responsible, science-based, and ethical wildlife stewardship. Read more here and in the articles in the sidebar. Watch our video:
Wildlife killing contests are ethically indefensible events allowing participants to kill wildlife to win prizes. They are ecologically reckless, not only harming individual animals, but also altering predator-prey dynamics, disrupting the social dynamics of predatory species, and increasing threats to public safety, all for fun and prizes. They have no beneficial management purpose but, rather, promote gratuitous violence against wildlife.
Talking Points:
Ban Wildlife Killing Contests
1. Commend the California Fish and Game Commission and the Wildlife Resources Committee for prioritizing the issue of modernizing predator conservation and stewardship statewide. California has the opportunity to set the trend for the nation by moving this great state toward more responsible, science-based, and ethical wildlife stewardship. These regulations and policies should reflect current science, conservation biology, and the ecological principles of ecosystem-based management as well as proven coexistence practices which will yield better outcomes for wildlife and people. The first logical step toward this goal is to end those practices that violate these standards starting with a ban on wildlife killing contests.
2. Wildlife killing contests, “derbies” and “drives” are conducted for profit, entertainment, prizes and, simply, for the "fun" of killing. Such thrill kill events perpetuate the wanton waste of wildlife. Prizes and awards are given to those who kill the most individuals and the largest (and sometimes the most females). This is not about sport or fair-chase; predators are often baited and lured in with distress calls of wounded young placing wildlife at an even greater and unfair disadvantage.
3. No evidence exists showing that indiscriminate killing contests control problem animals or serve any beneficial management function. For example, coyote populations that are not exploited (that is hunted, trapped, or controlled by other means) form stable "extended family" social structures that naturally limit coyote populations through defense of territory and the suppression of breeding by subordinate female members of the family group. Indiscriminate killing of coyotes disrupts this social stability resulting in increased reproduction and greater pup survival.
4. Many wildlife species, especially predators, have been shown to provide numerous ecosystem services that benefit humans; these can include control of rodents and rabbits which compete with domestic livestock for forage and which are associated with diseases including plague, hantavirus, tularemia and Lyme disease.
5. Wildlife killing contests perpetuate a culture of violence and send the message to children that life has little value and that an entire species of animals is disposable.
6. Wildlife killing contests put non-target animals, companion animals, and people at risk.
7. California recently passed legislation (A.B. 2402) that requires the Department to use "ecosystem based management" and the best science in its stewardship of California's wildlife. Allowing these killing contests to continue would be in direct violation of this law.
Protect Wolves under CESA (please note: the written comment period is over on this issue but the Commission will accept public comment at the Ventura hearing on April 16th)
Urge the Commission to grant wolves the protection they need by listing them under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposing to remove federal Endangered Species Act protection from wolves, it's critical wolves have the strongest protections under state law.
1. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recently recommended against listing wolves with the argument that there are no known wolves currently in the state. Wolf OR-7 has made California part of his range. Scientists agree that it's highly likely that more wolves from Oregon will come to California. The Commission and the Department should be preparing for the inevitability of wolves recolonizing California and proactively putting protective meaures in place to promote recovery.
2. The California ESA does not require that a population of a species be present in order to list it.
3. Scientists report that there are hundreds of thousands of acres of suitable wolf habitat in California.
4. Wolves need protection under the CE
Then this:
AP
SAN FRANCISCO -- California wildlife regulators are proposing a ban on contests that reward hunters who kill coyotes and other predators.
The California Fish & Game Commission this week issued a proposed rule that would make it illegal offer a prize, inducement or reward for killing predators, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The 3-2 vote opens a public comment period that will end Aug. 6, when the commission is expected to make a final decision on the proposal.
Related Content
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The commission received about 13,000 letters and emails from wildlife advocates calling for an end to the indiscriminate killing of coyotes and other predators.
"This vote brings us one step closer to reforming how predators are managed in this state," said Camilla Fox, executive director of the advocacy group Project Coyote, which submitted the petition asking for the law. "Most people are shocked to learn that it is legal to kill coyotes, foxes, bobcats and other wildlife as part of a tournament for prizes and recreational fun."
Conservationists have been demanding action after learning about an annual three-day coyote hunt held each February in Modoc County in northeastern California.
Ranchers say they need to manage coyotes because they are responsible for the vast majority of livestock deaths.
But conservationists say hunting coyotes doesn't reduce their numbers, pointing to studies that show coyotes breed more often and have more puppies when pack leaders are killed. The leaders, or alphas, are the only males that mate in a coyote pack, but when they are killed underlings get a chance to reproduce.
