LETTER: Coyote killing contests ‘state sanctioned animal genocide’

To Ozaukee Press:    

Every winter coyotes, bobcats and other animals are legally eliminated in “killing contests” where people blast away and get rewarded for it. Prizes are awarded for the most coyotes killed, the biggest, the smallest, etc.

This isn’t hunting. This is state-sanctioned animal genocide. These animals lose their lives because some people like to shoot and see blood. This gratuitous killing of predators when we have lost 60% of all animals in my lifetime is insane. It’s senseless to kill top predators when deer overpopulation is causing forest degredation and crop loss. Predators thin herds and kill sick animals, which helps control the spread of chronic wasting disease.

Is it any wonder we have trouble with gun violence in our society when we allow killers in the forest to kill just for the sake of it? There is no science behind these massacres. There is no environmental need for the destruction of these animals.

As I see it, the same people likely disregard all of Earth’s natural gifts. What’s missing is respect. Gratuitous killing neither respects nor understands the life-giving systems that we all rely on. Killing for sport is wrong.
 

Juliee de la Terre
Viola