# Interesting article with Mr. Posewtiz's take on tourneys.



## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

Interesting article from this morning's Bismarck paper.

Coyote Killing Contest Prompt Howls

By MATTHEW BROWN

BAKER, Mont. - The barren buttes surrounding this small ranching town will offer scant places for coyotes to hide this weekend as hunters converge for a "calling" contest to see who can shoot the most coyotes.

Part predator control, part economic development ploy, the annual event began five years ago in a bid to pique outside interest in Baker via a $6,000 purse funded by entrance fees, local businesses and the Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

While organizers see success in the event's growth, the increasing popularity of such contests is prompting a backlash from animal rights groups and even some hunters, who contend the events trivialize the sport by turning it into a cash-fueled spectacle.

For the coyote, the hunts reflect the lowly place the animal still holds across the American West. Even as a debate rages between state and federal officials over whether its high profile cousin, the gray wolf, should be removed from the endangered species list, the coyote is stuck with the label "varmint", to be killed on sight.
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Most states have few if any restrictions on killing the animal, said Stephen Price, president of coyoteclub.org, which connects hunters with ranchers hoping to eliminate the animals from their land.

In Baker, a town of about 1,700 tucked against the North Dakota border, supporters of this weekend's contest say it will deliver a much-needed jolt to the area's economy, drawing some 180 participants from as far away as Chicago and Seattle. They also say fewer coyotes means fewer livestock killings.

"I don't know why God put them on this Earth," said Jerrid Geving, a hunter who organizes the Baker event. "If He put them on this world to give us sport for hunting, maybe. But I'll tell you what, they do a lot of damage to livestock."

Despite widespread support for that sentiment, not everyone agrees contest hunts are the answer.

Randy Tunby, a sheep rancher in nearby Plevna, Mont., has turned down requests from contest participants to hunt on his land. The results of such hunts, he said, are spotty at best.

"I'm not saying it's not a good thing to do; we ourselves call coyotes. But if you have problems with coyotes getting into your livestock, it's going to be haphazard if people coming into the contest get those," Tunby said.

Tunby prefers the services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's predator control program. According to USDA records, its Wildlife Services division shoots, poisons, traps or otherwise destroys about 80,000 coyotes a year on private and public lands nationwide.

John Shivik, a research biologist with the services' National Wildlife Research Center, said any effort to reduce livestock damage must specifically target those animals causing problems. Contest hunts might miss the worst offenders, he said.

Coyotes caused an estimated $47 million in damage to the cattle industry in 2005, according to the USDA. Sheep losses topped $10 million in 2004.

Groups including the Humane Society of the United States and Predator Defense say neither private hunts nor public agency killings offer a real solution because of the coyote's ability to rapidly reproduce.

"You kill some coyotes and six months later it's as if you didn't kill any at all. What are they accomplishing other than just being barbaric?" asked Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense.

In Montana, coyotes can be hunted 24 hours a day, 12 months a year, with no limits. That provides out-of-state hunters with ample "trigger time" not available in their home states, said Geving, who already has bagged six coyotes this winter around Baker.

Price and others describe a booming interest in coyote hunting, with an estimated 500 "calling contests" nationwide and more added every year. They get their name because hunters howl and make distress calls to mimic prey, attracting coyotes. Many, Price said, are conducted on the sly _ invitation-only events meant to avoid the ire of animal rights groups.

Baker promotes its event with fliers and on the Internet. Even protesters are welcome, said Karol Zachmann, president of the Baker chamber of commerce.

"Actually, that does good for us if they come and meet us and find out we're not all that bad," she said.

To some hunters, turning the challenge of coyote hunting into a contest with large sums of money at stake defies long-standing traditions of the sport. Jim Posewitz, a leading voice in the field of hunters' ethics, says that to purists, the contests violate the basic tenet of "fair chase" _ the notion that hunting is a private struggle between predator and prey.

"I don't think hunting is a contest between human beings," said Posewitz, a biologist who spent 32 years with the Montana wildlife agency before founding the Orion Hunters Institute. "We like to think it's a more meaningful relationship that we have with wildlife than simply viewing them as a competition between people."[/b]


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## Danny B (Jun 6, 2006)

Good article. Most predator hunters don't know contest hunting has been going on since the 1950s. The differience is they didn't play for money, just trophies and bragging rights. 
With all the popularty of predator hunting nowadays I'm really suprised the animal rights people haven't stopped it all. To be honest I don't think they can, we out number them. :wink: and we own guns.


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## MossyMO (Feb 12, 2004)

> "You kill some coyotes and six months later it's as if you didn't kill any at all. What are they accomplishing other than just being barbaric?" asked Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense.


Do you think this person really has thought this statement through? Where would the coyote numbers be now if we did not kill any at all. There would be an outrageous population of coyotes, ranchers and the general public would be begging for callers to shoot them and mange would be out of control. It is called wildlife management and keeping the numbers at a managable level.


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## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

Mossymo,

I thought the same thing when I read that part of the article.


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

MO and Dak

I also thought that.


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## yooperyotebuster (Dec 13, 2005)

Danny B, 
While I respect your usual knowledge and insight don't think for one minute that we out number anti hunting organizations and because we own guns ( i wish we could use them) that we can win all battles against these groups. Michigan just lost our dove hunting season and bobcat trapping seasons (in lower Mi) due to the anti efforts.


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## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

yooperyotebuster,

i knew the dove hunting was under fire. Didn't realize the battle had been lost. Too bad.


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## Brad.T (Mar 29, 2004)

For the most part these people don't actually attend a tournament or do the research even into what the tournament is about. They never brought up that some of these tournaments like the "Classic" raise money for local charities now did they!


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## Waterspaniel (Oct 10, 2005)

I dont think hunting REALLY affects yote numbers. If we stopped killing them, numbers might spike for a short time. BUT, a habitat can support a certain number of animals. period. Its not like yotes would be crawling out of the wood work. If we kill 250 dogs in a county, that probaly just 250 more pups that will survive next year. Think of a water tank being filled with a hose. Water leaks out some holes, cattle drink some, evaporation takes some water. But ultimately the tank gets full from the hose and some flows over. Thats the carrying capacity. the "water in" is the pups. the holes and the overspill is hunting, disease, etc. There is no way human hunters can take more dogs out than the yotes can produce. I think the coyote tank will always be full or close to it. The coyote habitat tank is just getting bigger(expanded range), but they keep pouring in the pups. If hunters didnt help keep the tank at the fill line, mange, starvation, and other disease would take the excess.

What hunting them does do, in my opinion, is keep em honest. The pressure keeps em from eating your pets and kids. A good honest fear.


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Waterspaniel

I love that water tank example. I teach Biology and we go through carrying capacity with populations. That example is a great way to associate it with.


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