Washington bans wildlife killing contests

Cheers to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission for its vote this month banning wildlife killing contests, in which participants compete to kill the most, the largest, or even the smallest animals for cash and prizes. The new rule prohibits the killing of unprotected species including coyotes, bobcats, crows, foxes and raccoons as part of a contest.

Contest participants killed at least 1,427 animals in these events in Washington between 2013 and 2018.

Washington joins six other states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Vermont—that have taken a stand against barbaric wildlife killing contests. California banned the awarding of prizes for killing furbearing and nongame mammals in 2014; New Mexico and Vermont outlawed coyote killing contests in 2019 and 2018, respectively; Arizona and Massachusetts prohibited killing contests that target predator and furbearer species in late 2019; and in April 2020, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to ban wildlife killing contests for furbearer and certain small game species in the state.

You can read more about wildlife killing contests under scrutiny in our Action Line story here.