If signed by Gov. Hochul, New York would join eight other states
By Gwendolyn Craig
The state Assembly’s return to Albany this week resulted in passage of a controversial ban on wildlife killing contests that upstate Republican lawmakers largely opposed. The state Senate had already passed the measure, and it will now need Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature to become law.
State Assemblymember Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat, sponsored the legislation that would ban kill contests for wildlife species such as coyotes, foxes, squirrels and racoons. It would not ban hunting the animals or interfere with any state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations on bag limits. It also does not prevent a person from taking nuisance animals.
Should Hochul sign it, New York would become the ninth state to ban such competitions. Vermont, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, California and Washington already have such laws in place.
“Most New Yorkers would be shocked to learn that dozens of gruesome and unsporting contests take place each year in New York to kill the largest number of certain species of wildlife,” Glick said in a news release. “These killing contests celebrate senseless brutality, and serve absolutely no scientifically backed ecological or conservation purpose. The wildlife of the state is a natural resource for all New Yorkers to enjoy, and to allow these radical contests to incentivize wasteful killing for cash is an insult to nature.”
Join a community of Adirondack Explorers!
Your contribution helps power non-profit, independent journalism focused on the Adirondack Park.
The legislation has the support of many environmental advocacy groups, including the Adirondack Council and Protect the Adirondacks. The DEC did not take a position on the bill, Glick noted on Wednesday, as she faced over an hour of questions from Republican colleagues against the measure.
State Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, R-Horicon, said people of the Adirondacks and elsewhere have been participating in hunting contests for years, including former President Theodore Roosevelt. Simpson said these contests operate within the DEC’s rules and regulations and there was no difference between hunting and hunting contests other than a prize at the end. He also wondered why white-tailed deer, bear, fish and other species were left off the list of species covered by the bill.
Glick said fish are separate from other wildlife, based on the DEC’s laws, and that species not included have separate management plans.
State Assemblyman John Lemondes Jr., a Republican from Central New York, called the legislation “an explicit infringement on hunting rights and second amendment privileges.” State Assemblyman Robert Smullen, a Republican representing the Mohawk Valley and parts of the Adirondacks, dubbed it “a cultural difference that cannot be bridged” between upstate and downstate.
Lemondes, Simpson and others also worried that the ban on contests would impact agriculture and rural homeowners, who have resident coyotes killing their animals.
Groups such as Project Coyote, a California-based coalition of scientists, conservationists and government officials, have said coyote killing contests are a threat to wolf recovery. Wolves are an endangered species and killing them is prohibited under state and federal law. A hunter, who thought he shot a large coyote near Cooperstown in 2021. DNA analysis revealed he had actually killed a gray wolf.
“We commend New York legislators for their leadership on voting to outlaw egregious and unscientific wildlife killing contests,” said Renee Seacor, carnivore conservation advocate for Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute, in a news release. “During an extinction crisis, with wildlife populations around the world plummeting, indiscriminate killing of wildlife for prizes is ethically indefensible, ecologically reckless and runs counter to sound wildlife conservation and management. This important legislation will help bring New York’s wildlife management into the 21st century.”
The bill passed 86-54.
Great! I hope the Governor signs the bill!
It will be to New York’s great credit if this bill is signed into law. It should, however, include fishes, bears, etc.
Our fellow animal species consist of sentient beings who deserve respect and compassion. Treating them like targets in bloodthirsty contests is egregious cruelty, and awarding prizes for such killing indulges base motivations. It retards progress toward human society becoming genuinely civilized.
Putting an end to these unethical, ecologically unsound, barbaric contests. This is good news.
Frans de Waal, a primatologist and professor of psychology at Emory University, in a New York Times article writes, “When our ancestors moved from hunting to farming, they lost respect for animals and began to look at themselves as the rulers of nature. In order to justify how they treated other species, they had to play down their intelligence and deny them a soul.”
Animal advocates are sick and tired of “humane washing” PR propaganda by the marketing media as a cover up to protect the status quo of “business as usual” and sick and tired of the use of oxymorons such as “humane treatment” and “humane slaughter” in order to make ourselves feel good.
The fact that the law doesn’t ban hunting itself is proof that “our humanity” is a fraud. The same goes for wildlife “management”: Wildlife Services, the USDA’s agency of assassins, killed 433,192 animals in 2020. This is actually better than the 1.3 million killed in 2019. The list of victims is listed below:
“In 2020, Wildlife Services killed 62,537 coyotes, 25,400 beavers, 2,527 foxes, 703 bobcats, 434 black bears, 381 gray wolves, 276 cougars and 6 endangered grizzly bears.”
Why should hunting be banned??
Why should hunting be banned?
These contests bring out the worst in humans and encourage sadistic acts of cruelty. If we stopped viewing wild animals as a “resource” here for our benefit, and acknowledged, instead, that they are fellow living beings who value their lives as much as we do ours and have as much right to be here as we do, there would be no way to justify killing them for a prize. The bill should include deer, bears, and fish. Nine billion people on the planet are destroying the places animals live; when they show up in spaces we’ve claimed as ours, we call them threats and feel justified in exterminating them. It reminds me of how European colonizers treated indigenous people around the world.
Great news ! I hope the Governor signs this !! Unethical killing and torture needs to stop
No spotted lanternfly killing contests … Brilliant!
No more hemlock pests killing contests … Brilliant!
The 1st step in no hunting at all. PETA is smiling for sure they can see a meat free future. No leather seats in your SUV.
Why should there be no hunting at all??
when god kicked adam and eve out of eden he clothed them in animal skins. If itsgood enough for the creator then its good enough for me.
I can’t believe this passed. Will be a xtra thankful for when I eat my venison breakfast sausage for breakfast
Two competing definitions of the word ” contest” NOUN
an event in which people compete for supremacy in a sport, activity, or particular quality:
VERB oppose (an action, decision, or theory) as mistaken or wrong: You decide as to the meaning of Killing CONTEST!
I contest contest killing.
I hope Governor Hochul signs this bill. It will NOT infringe on the rights of hunters.
There is no practical way to control these now APEX predators. Two days ago a Canadian child was mauled by a Coyote and nearly killed. Will the suburban white woman offer thoughts and prayers or maybe a gofundme as these attacks will rise.