Nevada Wildlife Commission to hold workshop, discuss drafting coyote hunting competition ban
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Wed, 11/03/2021 - 3:27pm
The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commission will hold a workshop Friday to discuss language for a potential ban of wildlife hunting competitions, specifically predatory or furbearing animals such as coyotes.
The workshop, proposed by Commissioner David McNinch, will be held virtually on Zoom. Commissioners will consider language that would prohibit a person from participating in, promoting, or sponsoring a contest to capture or kill predatory or furbearing animals.
The meeting begins at 8 a.m. and will be broadcast live at the NDOW Commission YouTube page here.
Those who wish to make public comment can do so by going here. Passcode: 650703
Meeting materials are available at: http://www.ndow.org/Public_Meetings/Com/Agenda/
The Wildlife Commission has already discussed the hunting contests at four prior meetings without a resolution. At Friday's meeting commissioners could direct the Nevada Department of Wildlife to develop a rule. If an impasse continues, the issue could go before the Nevada Legislature.
The issue has brought division from both the ranching and hunting communities as well as from wildlife advocates, according to the Associated Press in an August 11 story.
In September, the Reno City Council passed a resolution advocating for a ban on wildlife hunting contests, specifically, "unprotected fur-bearing mammals" such as coyotes, according to the This is Reno news website. the Clark County Board of Commissioners adopted a similar resolution earlier this year.
In March, the Elko Daily Free Press reported that the Elko County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution saying that “Elko County supports the continuation of coyote hunting contests and asks the Nevada Wildlife Commission to reject the appeals to outlaw the hunts.”
Eight states, including southwestern neighbors Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico, have banned wildlife killing contests.
According to Congressionalsportsman.org in an Oct. 25 story advocating against a ban, "hunting tournaments are a time-honored tradition in Nevada that provide increased opportunities for Nevada’s sportsmen and sportswomen to participate in the great outdoors, while also contributing to effective wildlife management and supporting local economies."
The article further stated that "hunting tournaments can help provide an effective management tool for specific species, such as coyotes, where localized issues of overabundance may result in increased human-wildlife conflicts and attacks. It has been proven that short-term removal mechanisms, such as tournaments, can provide immediate relief to farmers and ranchers by helping reduce livestock losses due to those varmint species."
According to the August Associated Press story, Patrick Donnelly, the Nevada State Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, called the tournaments “brutal slaughters,” and were antithetical to fair-chase hunting norms and criticized the commission’s efforts to reach compromise as misguided.
“Right now, the state at least has the plausible deniability of saying there’s no specific rule against them, even if the state doesn’t specifically sanction them. Regulating these sick contests would give them the sanction of the state — a seal of approval from the people of the state of Nevada,” he told the commission, according to the Associated Press story. “If your intent is to put this issue to bed, regulating these contests will have the exact opposite effect.”
