Coyote Killing Contests In New Mexico Banned

​worldanimalnews.com/appalling-coyote-killing-contests-now-banned-on-9-million-acres-of-new-mexico-state-land/

Newly appointed New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard recently signed into law a ban that prevents coyote hunting contests on over 9 million acres of state land. This order makes it illegal to organize, sponsor, or participate in any kind of contest designed to kill unprotected animals for sport resulting in cash or prizes. Although this order does nothing to prevent what is described as, "ethical hunting", it is a step in the right direction when it comes to sport hunting. 

These contests often encourage participants to go out and kill as many animals as they can earning points for the different type of animal they kill. Coyotes are specifically targeted as they are considered nuisance animals but fox, bobcats, and other small predators are often included. These contests promote needless slaughter in the name of fun and quite literally encourage people to kill for money. They're absolutely despicable contests and do nothing but give people the opportunity to satisfy a salacious need to kill.  Photos and videos I've seen in the past of these types of contests often show piles of corpses and sick people smiling in hopes of winning the prize of top hunter / predator. 

This order does not necessarily mean that sport hunting will come to an end but what it does mean is that these sick contests will be ceased on protected state land in New Mexico. Often times, animals like coyotes, bobcats, and foxes, have no protections under the law as they are abundant and not currently at risk of endangerment so these sorts of contests go off without any issues because these animals lack protection. As I mentioned, this doesn't prevent people from proposed "ethical hunting" and also does nothing to prevent farmers from shooting animals they deem problems to their farm animals / pets, but it will at least prevent these awful contests from taking place.

What we can hope from this is that other states in the United States take notice and move towards banning this awful sport as well. As I've said before, human interference is the leading cause of ecosystem decline yet we will continue to blame the animals. We allow people to hunt all of the coyotes, wolves, and bobcats, and then complain that there are too many deer which ultimately leads us to kill them as well. We are the ONLY REASON ecosystems suffer because of our constant interference. You know, these areas function just fine without us getting involved and it's only because of our constant growth and demolishing of their forests / land that leads them to move elsewhere. It's because of our constant hunting that other species overpopulate. If we just kept our bloody noses out of things the animals could thrive as we do.

Thank you New Mexico for being one of the first states to ban this awful sport and here's to hoping more states follow suit. 

HAPPY VEG