Coyote hunting competitions are a regular occurrence in many parts of rural Nevada, but the controversial practice has animal rights activists renewing efforts to ban them. Reno Public Radio's Julia Ritchey reports.
A flyer for a coyote derby in Austin, Nevada, this weekend advertises prizes and awards for hunters grouped into two- and three-person teams.
Phil Marshall is one of the organizers of the event. He says there are two benefits; the first is driving economic activity to a remote part of the state.
"Anything to bring people and commerce into the little town of Austin,” he says. “It’s in a very, very rough economy."
And the second, he says, is to help ranchers and farmers control coyote populations.
"The ranchers surrounding the area here, they lose their lands and their small sheep to coyotes quite frequently,” he says. “So they’re interested in keeping the population not diminished, but maintained."
Marshall says he's accustomed to the controversy surrounding these hunts and welcomes discussion from critics.
Project Coyote, based in California, is one of those critics. Camilla Fox directs the nonprofit.
"Most people are shocked to learn that wildlife killing contests are legal throughout North America,” she says. “The fact [that] these killing contests go on reflects really mismanagement by states of these apex predators."
She says there’s no scientific evidence that indiscriminate killing of predators reduces conflicts with livestock. And these mammal play a key role in nature.
"As top apex predators in ecosystems, among other things, they help to regulate rodent populations — so gophers, rats, squirrels — they are key to healthy, resilient ecosystems."
Unpopular or not, the practice is legal in Nevada.
"Coyotes, under Nevada revised statutes, are actually unprotected mammals."
That's Chris Healy, spokesman for the state's department of wildlife.
"And so there's actually not a lot of management authority that the Department of Wildlife has on coyotes and how they are dealt with here in Nevada” he says.
The only time his crew will get involved with coyotes is if they receive a call involving human safety. And with no management authority, Healy says they don't know how big or small coyote populations are currently…
"But we can say that anybody who is from Nevada knows there's no shortage of coyotes in the state of Nevada,” he says. “There's probably a higher concentration around the urban interface because there's more food there than there is out in the wild."
Not having a definitive count on coyotes that has spurred the Coyote Project and Nevada Wildlife Alliance into action. They've just submitted a petition to the Nevada Department of Wildlife urging a ban on coyote hunting contests.
California outlawed the practice last year and Fox says other states should follow suit.
"Killing contests are essentially an anachronism and a practice like cock fighting and dog fighting that we really believe just needs to be banned," she says.
Derby organizer Phil Marshall says the event has become rural tradition in his hometown of Austin, and he’d like to see it stay that way.
"A lot of this is just to bring people together in a safe environment and allow a hunt,” he says.
The petition to ban coyote hunts will be considered at the wildlife commission's meeting next month.
