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BAKER, Mont. - The barren buttes surrounding this small ranching town will offer scant places for coyotes to hide this weekend as hunters converge for a "calling" contest to see who can shoot the most coyotes.

Part predator control, part economic development ploy, the annual event began five years ago in a bid to pique outside interest in Baker via a $6,000 purse funded by entrance fees, local businesses and the Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

While organizers see success in the event's growth, the increasing popularity of such contests is prompting a backlash from animal rights groups and even some hunters, who contend the events trivialize the sport by turning it into a cash-fueled spectacle.

For the coyote, the hunts reflect the lowly place the animal still holds across the American West. Even as a debate rages between state and federal officials over whether its high profile cousin, the gray wolf, should be removed from the endangered species list, the coyote is stuck with the label "varmint", to be killed on sight.

Most states have few if any restrictions on killing the animal, said Stephen Price, president of coyoteclub.org, which connects hunters with ranchers hoping to eliminate the animals from their land.

In Baker, a town of about 1,700 tucked against the North Dakota border, supporters of this weekend's contest say it will deliver a much-needed jolt to the area's economy, drawing some 180 participants from as far away as Chicago and Seattle. They also say fewer coyotes means fewer livestock killings.

"I don't know why God put them on this Earth," said Jerrid Geving, a hunter who organizes the Baker event. "If He put them on this world to give us sport for hunting, maybe. But I'll tell you what, they do a lot of damage to livestock."

Despite widespread support for that sentiment, not everyone agrees contest hunts are the answer.

Randy Tunby, a sheep rancher in nearby Plevna, Mont., has turned down requests from contest participants to hunt on his land. The results of such hunts, he said, are spotty at best.

"I'm not saying it's not a good thing to do; we ourselves call coyotes. But if you have problems with coyotes getting into your livestock, it's going to be haphazard if people coming into the contest get those," Tunby said.

Tunby prefers the services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's predator control program. According to USDA records, its Wildlife Services division shoots, poisons, traps or otherwise destroys about 80,000 coyotes a year on private and public lands nationwide.

John Shivik, a research biologist with the services' National Wildlife Research Center, said any effort to reduce livestock damage must specifically target those animals causing problems. Contest hunts might miss the worst offenders, he said.

Coyotes caused an estimated $47 million in damage to the cattle industry in 2005, according to the USDA. Sheep losses topped $10 million in 2004.

Groups including the Humane Society of the United States and Predator Defense say neither private hunts nor public agency killings offer a real solution because of the coyote's ability to rapidly reproduce.

"You kill some coyotes and six months later it's as if you didn't kill any at all. What are they accomplishing other than just being barbaric?" asked Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense.

In Montana, coyotes can be hunted 24 hours a day, 12 months a year, with no limits. That provides out-of-state hunters with ample "trigger time" not available in their home states, said Geving, who already has bagged six coyotes this winter around Baker.

Price and others describe a booming interest in coyote hunting, with an estimated 500 "calling contests" nationwide and more added every year. They get their name because hunters howl and make distress calls to mimic prey, attracting coyotes. Many, Price said, are conducted on the sly - invitation-only events meant to avoid the ire of animal rights groups.

Baker promotes its event with fliers and on the Internet. Even protesters are welcome, said Karol Zachmann, president of the Baker chamber of commerce.

"Actually, that does good for us if they come and meet us and find out we're not all that bad," she said.

To some hunters, turning the challenge of coyote hunting into a contest with large sums of money at stake defies long-standing traditions of the sport. Jim Posewitz, a leading voice in the field of hunters' ethics, says that to purists, the contests violate the basic tenet of "fair chase" - the notion that hunting is a private struggle between predator and prey.

"I don't think hunting is a contest between human beings," said Posewitz, a biologist who spent 32 years with the Montana wildlife agency before founding the Orion Hunters Institute. "We like to think it's a more meaningful relationship that we have with wildlife than simply viewing them as a competition between people."

Phoenix, AZ (December 13, 2006) – The Arizona Animal Welfare League is experiencing a significant decrease in adoptions due to light rail construction along Washington Street in Phoenix. From June through November 2006 when light rail construction was at its heaviest, AAWL adopted 296 fewer dogs and cats than in the same period in 2005.

Located right off Washington on 40^th Place, the Arizona Animal Welfare League is only accessible via Washington. Light rail construction has made getting to the shelter difficult for drivers, despite signage provided by Valley Metro.

“We appreciate the need for a light rail route, but unfortunately the difficulty in getting to our facility is making it increasingly harder for us to find homes for our dogs and cats. The reality is that it is taking a very long time for many of our wonderful animals to get adopted,” says Sam Kabbel, President and CEO of the Arizona Animal Welfare League.

Founded in 1971, AAWL is the state’s oldest and largest no-kill shelter and primarily takes in animals from open admission shelters such as Maricopa County Animal Care and Control and the Arizona Humane Society where they might otherwise be euthanized. Animals can only be brought into AAWL as kennel and cattery space opens up. Decreasing adoption rates mean that fewer dogs and cats are able to be brought into AAWL from MCACC and AHS. It also means that AAWL, a nonprofit agency, is experiencing a significant decrease in adoption revenue.

“With adoption revenue down more than $18,000 from the same time last year, this is a significant financial hit for us. We don’t receive any governmental funding, we operate almost entirely on donations and adoption revenue,” says Kabbel. “We’re asking the community to remember the animals in our care. If you’ve been thinking about adopting, please make the trip to see our fabulous dogs and cats. If adopting isn’t possible, please consider donating to us this holiday season or consider becoming a volunteer.”

Media inquiries can be directed to AAWL’s Communications Director, Claire Simeone, at 602-273-6852, ext. 122.

ALBUQUERQUE — An environmental group went to court Thursday in an effort to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand a program to reintroduce the endangered Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and Arizona.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which has offices in both states, alleged in a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., that Fish and Wildlife has refused to implement recommendations of a scientific panel that reviewed the program.

The “hostility toward science is undermining the wolf recovery program,” the center said.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Vickie Fox of the agency’s Albuquerque office said officials haven’t had a chance to review the lawsuit and do not in general comment on pending litigation.

She added: “Making critical management decisions for a program that has complex social impacts while ensuring that wolves return to their natural world takes time, and the service does not take its decision-making process lightly. It is committed to the cooperative effort for recovery of Mexican wolves in the wild.”

Federal biologists began releasing wolves on the Arizona- New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its range after it had been hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1900s.

The program encompasses 4.4 million acres of the Gila and Apache Sitgreaves national forests on the Arizona- New Mexico border and the 1.6 million-acre White Mountain Apache reservation. The lawsuit seeks to force Fish and Wildlife to expand the area where wolves are allowed and to permit them to be released directly onto the Gila.

The lawsuit also wants ranchers who graze livestock on public land to take responsibility for disposing of carcasses to reduce the likelihood that wolves will become used to feeding on livestock.

The lawsuit said successful wolf recovery programs in the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes are not saddled with “such devastating and politically motivated limits.”
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition in March 2004 asking Fish and Wildlife to take those steps.

The agency has not done so, and the lawsuit seeks to force the changes.

David Parsons, a retired Fish and Wildlife official who coordinated the wolf recovery program from 1991 to 1999, said Thursday that the program’s guidelines aren’t leading to the species’ recovery.

When the rule was devised, the agency was under pressure to take into account various interest groups, especially the livestock industry, he said.

Concerns from that industry and the states led to concessions in the program— boundaries, limits on where animals could be released and agreements to remove wolves that killed livestock, he said.

Reward offered for information about sex assault, death of two puppies

Authorities are looking for one or more people in connection with the death of two 6-week-old puppies that had been sexually assaulted.

The two female Shih Tzu puppies each weighed less than two pounds. Post-death examinations revealed the canines had internal injuries and infection from apparent sexual assault with a blunt object.

The Arizona Humane Society and Silent Witness are offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest or indictment in the case.

"Whoever did this must be accountable for his or her actions," Arizona Humane Society President Cheryl Naumann said Thursday in a released statement. "This person or persons could pose a threat to other animals or people."

A west Phoenix veterinarian alerted authorities Nov. 28 when one of the dogs came in bruised around the abdomen and torn in the hindquarters. The pup died during the visit.

The owner, who police do not consider a suspect, led police to another home where a second injured Shih Tzu puppy was found. That dog died at a pet hospital.

Reports from two separate veterinary pathologists at the University of Arizona concluded the puppies died of bacterial infection likely induced by a sexual assault, according to the Arizona Humane Society.

State lawmakers outlawed bestiality in 2006. The law bans any type of sexual contact with an animal and is punishable by a presumptive prison term of five years.

Anyone with information is asked to call Silent Witness at (480) WITNESS. Callers can remain anonymous.

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