STOP PREDATOR HUNTING SLAUGHTER CONTESTS!
PEOPLE, it wont be just Coyotes!!! Whats it going to Take to Get People to TAKE ACTION?
This could be a deadly week for coyotes and other predators in Southern Arizona.
The reason: A group called Predator Masters is holding a convention in the Tucson area Thursday through Saturday — and animal protection advocates say the group’s previous conventions have included daily predator hunts that amount to “killing contests” and an “indiscriminate slaughter” of coyotes.
A Predator Masters hunt in New Mexico last year left nearly 40 coyote carcasses strewn out and rotting, said Greg Hale, a Tucsonan who is helping organize protests of the hunts here.
A spokesman for Predator Masters strongly objected to the “slaughter” and “killing contest” characterizations — and he emphasized that the nonprofit, web-based group won’t organize or direct the hunting activities of group members during the convention in Tucson.
“Every year, we have a Predator Masters hunt and convention” involving guest speakers and a fundraising banquet, said spokesman Bob Lemons. “But we are not organizing a hunt. We are not organizing a contest. It’s just people privately deciding they’d like to go out and hunt” on public lands with the appropriate hunting licenses.