Skip to main content

State Bans Coyote-Killing Contests

Support Provided By
coyotes-killing-tournament-banned-12-3-14-thumb-630x419-84714
No longer the targets for killing contests in California | Photo: Matt Knoth/Flickr/Creative Commons License

Coyote-killing contests are no longer legal in the state of California. On Wednesday morning, the California Fish and Game Commission voted 4-1 to ban contests that offer cash prizes as incentives for killing coyotes, along with other mammal species such as bobcats and foxes.

The vote essentially closes a loophole in California's Fish and Game Code that had originally been intended to ban such contests.

"Awarding prizes for wildlife killing contests is both unethical and inconsistent with our current understanding natural systems," said Commission President Michael Sutton. "Such contests are an anachronism and have no place in modern wildlife management."

Commissioner Jacqueline Hostler-Carmesin of McKinleyville in Humboldt County was the sole vote against the ban. Hostler-Carmesin also cast the sole vote in October against confirming the Commission's decision to add the gray wolf to the state's endangered species list.

With Wednesday's vote at the Commission's meeting in Van Nuys, contests like the controversial Big Valley Coyote Drive in the Modoc County community of Adin, which for close to a decade offered prizes for participants who shot, killed, and displayed the largest number of coyotes. This year's drive in Adin resulted in about 40 coyotes killed, according to observer Roger Hopping.

The Adin hunt had especially raised concern after OR-7, a gray wolf from northeastern Oregon, wandered into the vicinity of the essentially unorganized coyote killing contest area. Wildlife advocates pointed out that the wolf, protected as an Endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, could easily be shot as a presumed coyote by an inexperienced (or impaired) coyote drive participant. The gray wolf's subsequent listing under the California Endangered Species Act provided additional impetus to ban coyote killing contests.

Wildlife advocates were quick to laud the Commission vote. "We commend the commission for this enlightened decision and for setting a precedent for the nation," said Camilla Fox, the Founder and Executive Director of the environmental group Project Coyote. "We should not be killing wildlife for fun and prizes in the 21st century."

Support Provided By
Read More
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.
blue themed graphic including electric vehicles are charging stations, wind turbines and trees, 2023 in reference to year

A Look Back at Climate Solutions In 2023

The U.S. may have a long way to go in its decarbonization goals, but these stories show signs of progress in climate solutions.