New Mexico Bans Coyote Killing Contests

​worldanimalnews.com/breaking-new-mexico-governor-signs-legislation-banning-destructive-coyote-killing-contests-in-the-state/

After nearly two decades of fighting to get this legislation passed, New Mexico has finally made it illegal to organize or participate in coyote killing contests. To date, there were approximately 30 of these contests held in New Mexico every year. 

In these contests, participants race to kill as many coyotes, the smallest coyotes, the largest etc., and win prizes based on their amount of kills. This "game" is nothing more than an excuse to run around shooting and killing living creatures with absolutely no regard for the coyotes whatsoever. These contests promote animal cruelty and set an example for younger people that these animals are nothing more than prey for us to do with as we please. It sickens me that something like this exists allowing bloodthirsty maniacs to wield guns and shoot and kill animals at will. It's completely sick and deserves this legislation banning it completely. 

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the article,

“Killing contests are just blood sports. All they are about is killing as many animals as you can, and not about protecting livestock or property,”

It's often under the guise of protecting livestock that these contests  occur but in almost every instance, these animals have never bothered livestock and are simply looked at as vermin.

“There is no documented scientific evidence that coyote-killing contests serve any legitimate wildlife management purpose,”

Livestock or wildlife management is arguably necessary when these animals are repeatedly wandering on to farms endangering people and livestock (although I disagree with animals being kept for food either). One could argue the legitimacy of killing a couple coyotes if they frequent a person's property putting them or their animals in danger but killing mass quantities of coyotes has no scientific backing behind it.

“Coyotes as a species don’t deserve to be vilified. They are important ecosystem managers that regulate populations of rodents and rabbits which are significant competitors for forage with other native herbivores and even livestock,”

Vilified is the perfect word to describe coyotes. They are perceived as nuisance animals that serve no purpose but that is simply not true. Coyotes keep rodents, rabbits, raccoons, and other herbivorous animals that would otherwise overpopulate and damage ecosystems at bay. Arguing that they are a nuisance as an excuse to run rampant on them is simply an excuse to go out and satisfy a desire to kill. Wildlife predators are imperative to keeping an ecosystem healthy and without them the habitat they typically live in suffers tremendously.

“These contests are abhorrent and unjustifiable — they are neither hunting nor wildlife management,”

These are perfect words to describe these contests. There is nothing more to it than a bunch of a$$holes who want to play with their guns and kill animals, it's as simple as that. Anyone who thinks that running around killing as many animals as you can is fun needs to look into some serious mental rehabilitation.

I'm so happy to hear that New mexico has made this very important step towards better animal rights and even happier than hundreds of coyotes will be spared being brutally murdered in the name of perverted fun.

HAPPY VEG