Wildlife columnist Patricia Randolph, who writes a twice-a-month column for us and is a pain in the butt to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources with her unabashed advocacy for wild animals, spotlighted the incredibly cruel practice of organized predator-killing contests throughout the country, including over a dozen right here in Wisconsin.
As evening falls across bronze stalks of winter bluestem, a single, high–pitched yowl rises like a mournful spirit. Within seconds, the lament is joined by a concerto of yips, yaps, and yelps that grows in crescendo, slicing the air in a wild a cappella performance. Call it opera done Okie style. A coyote cantata. A great howling hooha with a feral metronome known only to the songsmiths. If a million-year run on the evolutionary stage is any measure, the coyote song is a Grammy winner. Who among us can resist the urge to stop, for a moment, and listen?
The first thing you notice are the smiles. Toothy smiles, goofy smiles, ear-to-ear grins announcing the thrill of victory. Next, you notice the bodies, some hanging from the back of a pickup truck, some piled high in a trash bin, others displayed tidily before a camo-clad group preening for a social media post.
Calling animal killing contests “brutal, barbaric and inhumane,” new State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard banned the practice on state trust land Thursday.
Santa Fe, New Mexico — Today, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard signed an Executive Order banning wildlife killing contests for coyotes and other unprotected species on State Trust Lands as one of her first acts since taking office in January.