This past weekend marked the Bob Evans Memorial Predator Calling Hunt in upstate New York. The event allots a point value for each animal killed, with the winner taking home a $1,000 cash prize. Allocating cash rewards for killing animals encourages senseless killing and should be banned by the state of New York.

This particular event gives point values to killed bobcats, coyotes and foxes. Events like these are common in New York and have triggered a debate between animal rights groups and hunters.

“Awarding cash prizes for shooting bobcats, coyotes and other animals is not only immoral, it’s a bounty and should be illegal,” said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, a non-profit animal advocacy organization, when quoted in a Jan. 6 Syracuse.com article.

“New Yorkers demand protection for our wildlife, and these sadistic killing contests encourage a violent, twisted mentality that makes shooting animals a game. We want an end to hunters invading the woods and blasting away at wildlife with their guns and then being rewarded for it. There’s no place in a civilized society for such barbarism,” Edita Birnkrant, Director for Friends of Animals, said in the article.

Al Lafrance, president of the Pompey Rod and Gun Club, the club hosting this particular tournament, said in the article, “There’s nothing illegal, immoral or different. It’s just another bandwagon for the antis to hop on.”

A common argument made by hunters in defense of this practice is that hunting coyotes will curb population, ensuring the increased protection of livestock. If this were true, a bounty system would not be quite as egregious. However, the evidence suggests otherwise.

A July 2013 article from the Humane Society explains that “when aggressively controlled, coyotes can increase their reproductive rate by breeding at an earlier age and having larger litters.”

Coyotes are not the only predators known to kill livestock, and this trend is not theirs alone. A Dec. 3 National Geographic article cites a recent study showing that “when a wolf was killed, the chances of livestock getting killed increased the following year in that state — by 5–6 percent for cattle and 4 percent for sheep.” The more wolves killed, the higher these numbers were.

Two New York state bills have been sponsored which would make it illegal “for any person to organize, conduct, promote or participate in any contest of competition where the object of such contest of competition is to take the greatest number of wildlife,” according to a Jan. 6 Syracuse.com article. The bills are currently awaiting approval from the Environmental Conservation Committee.

California has already banned contests offering prizes for killed predators. “This rule sets a trend for the nation,” said Camilla Fox in a Dec. 5 SFGATE.com article. Fox is the executive director of Project Coyote, a group that petitioned to the state of California.

New York must follow California’s lead. Contests rewarding hunters for killing animals are senseless, futile and built on faulty logic. It’s time to rethink who the predators really are.

Azor Cole is a junior public relations major and geography minor. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at azcole@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @azor_cole.

Published on January 15, 2015 at 12:30 am