Speak Out Against Idaho Animal-Killing Contest  

Bloodthirsty hunters are at it again…and this time they’re demanding a larger area of land for an annual killing competition. The group “Idaho for Wildlife” ,a nonprofit whose aim is “to fight against all legal and legislative attempts by the animal rights and anti-gun organizations” to impose restrictions on hunting or guns, has asked the BLM to issue a 5 year special recreation permit which would allow an annual predator hunt derby on public lands that would totally approximately double the amount of land as last year.

Our Wildlife Law Program has drafted comments to send to the BLM, urging them not to allow these permits to be given to the group who is requesting an expansion of the predator derby. Read an excerpt from the comments below and check out the full version right here. 

“The proposed Special Recreation Permits would authorize a competition among 500 people, encouraging each person to kill wolves along with an unlimited amount of coyotes, weasels, skunks, jackrabbits, raccoons, and starlings. This massive assault is proposed to take place for three consecutive days on over three million acres of public land.

Predators in the Idaho Falls District play an invaluable role in their ecosystems, are an important part of the community culture, bring delight to millions of people, and have intrinsic values on their own as living creatures. If permitted, the derby would disrupt visitor use, diminish natural and cultural resources, and have negative social and economic impacts on the area. The competitive hunting derby is also antithetical to the goals and objectives of the recreation programs as outlined in the applicable land use plans, and would impair public wilderness study areas.  FoA, along with thousands of others, revealed their adamant opposition to the proposed derby during the scoping process. FoA again urges BLM to deny issuing the SRPs for the predator derby hunt.”

Send a comment to the Idaho BLM office asking them not to allow the predator hunting derby to take place. You can either use the main points of our comments which we have provided below or you can add your own comments and personalizations as well. Send your comments to blm_id_predatorhuntderby@blm.gov

1. The BLM does not have enough information to determine what kind of impacts would result from the predator derbies, and therefore would be irresponsible in granting the hunt to move forward. 

2. If the derby is allowed to proceed, non-target animals could be also be killed or displaced. 

3. To allow the proposed derby in Idaho to occur would undermine the recovery efforts for gray wolves and could trigger another listing decision or court challenge. 

4. The only real purpose of the predator derby is for “sport” and alleged predator control. It is critical to understand though that “predator control” is not only inhumane and environmentally devastating, but it is also fruitless.

5. The economic gain from hosting the derby would be minimal as compared to Idaho’s overall economy and tourism industry, which could be seriously affected by the economic losses caused by the derby.

6. It is time for the BLM to recognize that the individual animals have inherent value, and this in turn demands that the BLM incorporate ethics into its consideration of wildlife management activities on public lands.