by Rev. David Sickles, published in Mahoning Matters

Dear Chief Currington, We noticed that you are a sponsor of the upcoming 1st Annual Youth Squirrel Hunt Contest, scheduled for October 14th at Luoma Outdoors, in Cortland and are writing to ask you to immediately cancel this event and not support this event in the future. Despite its innocuous-sounding name, this “contest” is simply a bloodbath for entertainment, with kid contestants competing for prize money to see who can kill the heaviest squirrel, and another winner for the squirrel killed with the longest tail. We ask that you not sponsor future stagings of this event for the following reasons.

Wildlife killing contests are a far cry from traditional fair chase hunting, nor are they sound, science-based wildlife management. They create instability and chaos in the family structures of animals who are killed, and the population may even grow to outnumber that in the area before the killing contest was conducted.

…

We are aware that national animal welfare groups such as Friends of Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Ohio Animal Advocates have already contacted you requesting that you rethink your involvement in these types of animal abusive events.

Read more here.