CONTACT US

COALITION CHAIRS:

CAMILLA H. FOX
Founder & Executive Director
Project Coyote
info@projectcoyote.org

JILL FRITZ
Director, Wildlife Protection
Humane Society of the United States
jfritz@humanesociety.org

COALITION MEMBERS:

Animal Legal Defense Fund

Animal Protection League of New Jersey

Animal Protection New Mexico

Animal Protection Voters (New Mexico)

Animal Welfare Institute

Apex Protection Project

Atlanta Coyote Project

Born Free USA

Canid Project

Center for Biological Diversity

Endangered Species Coalition

Footloose Montana

Friends of Cape Wildlife

Friends of Merrymeeting Bay

Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife

Georgia Animal Rights and Protection

Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project

Great Old Broads for Wilderness

The Humane Society Legislative Fund

The Humane Society of the United States

The Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association

The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust

In Defense of Animals

Lady Freethinker

League of Humane Voters – Georgia

League of Humane Voters of New York

League of Humane Voters – Wisconsin

Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Mountain Lion Foundation

Nakawe Project

National Wolfwatcher Coalition

Natural Resources Defense Council

Nevada Paws – THE LINK

Nevada Wildlife Alliance

New Hampshire Wildlife Coalition

Oceanic Preservation Society

Ohio Animal Advocates

Pegasus Foundation

Pettus-Crowe Foundation

Plan B to Save Wolves

Prairie Protection Colorado

Predator Defense

Project Coyote

Protect Our Wildlife Vermont

Rewilding Institute

Southwest Environmental Center

Speak for Wolves

Stop the Madness

Trap Free America

Trap Free Montana

Voices of Wildlife

Western Environmental Law Center

Western Wildlife Conservancy

WildEarth Guardians

Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation

Wolf Conservation Center

Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin Media

Wyoming Untrapped

Wyoming Wildlife Advocates

THE PROBLEM

Each year thousands of coyotes, foxes, bobcats, prairie dogs, crows, and even wolves are targeted in wildlife killing contests where contestants compete for prizes and awards for killing the most, largest, or smallest animals. These contests, unmonitored by wildlife agencies, are legal throughout most of the United States. Such contests masquerade as “management” and “hunting” but instead increase the potential for conflict and violate ethical hunting principles. Killing contests are one of the last bloodsports that remain legal with dog- and cock-fighting now relegated to history.

Modern science and societal values point to nonlethal methods as the only way for humans and wildlife to coexist in the face of 21st-century challenges. Wildlife killing contests are antithetical to ethics, science, and coexistence with life in North America.

THE MISSION

The National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests is a growing alliance of national and state organizations working to permanently abolish contests that promote the killing of bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, wolves, and other species for cash and prizes in wildlife killing contests, derbies, and tournaments in the United States.

If you’re interested in joining the Coalition, please fill out the form here.

The mission of the National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests is to apply the combined expertise and experience of our member organizations to work toward ending wildlife killing contests, derbies, and tournaments in the United States. 

The Coalition’s goals are to:

• Expose the prevalence of wildlife killing contests—organized events where participants compete for cash and prizes for killing a wide variety of wild animal species—across the United States.
• Raise public awareness about how wildlife killing contests disrupt ecological function and health, degrade the value of individual animals, teach disrespect for wildlife, and inflict and promote cruelty to animals.
• Inspire and promote grassroots action to end wildlife killing contests through legislation, regulatory reform, and litigation.
• Support efforts by organizations and individuals to prohibit and end wildlife killing contests nationwide, at every jurisdictional level.
• Advocate for responsible, humane, and ecologically sound wildlife management practices, focused on coexistence and science-based non-lethal methods of conflict resolution.
• Promote dialogue with wildlife killing contest sponsors to encourage them to stop supporting these events, and to view wildlife as essential components of healthy ecosystems rather than as pests, vermin, or targets in competitive killing contests.

“[P]art of my job, and frankly part of my soul, is to promote hunting, to get our youth hunting, to really have this be a core piece of what our society supports. And frankly, that job is a lot harder if we’re condoning these types of contests.” – Kelly Susewind, Director of Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife

“Killing large numbers of predators as part of an organized contest or competition is inconsistent with sound, science-based wildlife management and antithetical to the concepts of sportsmanship and fair chase.” – Mike Finley, hunter and chair of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, 2019

“To the extent these contests reflect on the overall hunting community, public outrage with these events has the potential to threaten hunting as a legitimate wildlife management function.” – Arizona Game & Fish Commission, 2019

“For me, hunting contests don’t sit well. As a sportsman I’d never participate in one personally. Hunting is an important reverent tradition in Colorado and powerful management tool but I also think wildlife killing contests give sportsmen and sportswomen a bad name and damage our reputation.” – Dan Gibbs, sportsman and executive director of Colorado Department of Natural Resources

Wildlife killing contests are still legal in 42 U.S. states, but Americans are increasingly demanding an end to this bloodsport as the events come to light. Currently, ten states have banned killing contests.

TAKE ACTION

We need your help to end wildlife killing contests everywhere!  Here are some steps you can take:

• Schedule a phone call or meeting to ask your state legislators (if your state has a bill listed above) or your state wildlife commissioners (if your state has a proposed regulation listed above) to ban killing contests.
• Ask your family, friends, and coworkers to support your state’s proposed ban of killing contests; share through social media.
• Write letters to the editor of your newspaper that raise support for the legislation or regulation banning killing contests and encourage readers to express their opposition to their lawmakers. See the activist toolkit for sample letters.
• Sign our petition supporting a ban of wildlife killing contests on public lands.
• Spread the word through social media and encourage people to take action. Find sample posts here.
• Share the film trailer and infographics through your social networks.
• Urge your city or county officials to pass a non-binding resolution condemning wildlife killing contests and calling on state policymakers to ban them. For guidance, see Toolkit: A Guide to Passing Local Resolutions.

RESOURCES

Factsheets

• End Wildlife Killing Contests Factsheet
• Read a statement in opposition to wildlife killing contests signed by more than 70 world-renowned conservation scientists here
• Project Coyote Science Advisory Board Coyote Facts
• Wildlife Killing Contests: Contrary to 21^st Century, Science-Based Wildlife Management (by the Humane Society of the United States)

Statements and Letters

• National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests mission statement
• Statement signed by more than 70 world-renowned conservation scientists
• Robert Crabtree’s letter regarding the effects of coyote control

Advocacy Guides & Materials

• A Guide to Passing Resolutions on Wildlife Killing Contests by the Humane Society of the United States. This toolkit guides you to raise public awareness, shut down individual events, and pass laws to ban killing contests. It includes sample letters to the editor; op-eds; letters to event sponsors and hosts; social media items; factsheets; testimony; and letters to policymakers.
• HSUS’s Graphic: Why killing coyotes doesn’t work
• Tabling Items: Informational postcard and postcard for advocates to send to policymakers

Videos

• Project Coyote’s award-winning documentary KILLING GAMES ~ Wildlife In The Crosshairs
• Comfort Theory’s Wildlife Killing Contests film
• The Humane Society of the United States’ 2021 undercover investigation into wildlife killing contests in Texas and Indiana (investigative reports here and here)
• The Humane Society of the United States’ 2020 undercover investigation into two Maryland wildlife killing contests (investigative report here)
• The HSUS’s 2020 undercover investigation into a New York wildlife killing contest (investigative report here)
• The HSUS’s 2018 undercover investigation into New Jersey and New York wildlife killing contests (investigative report here)
• The HSUS’s 2018 undercover investigation into an Oregon wildlife killing contest