Big Outcry By Public Cancels
Predator Hunting Competition

PHOENIX — Public protests have prevailed a second time in leading to cancellation of a predator hunt for points.

Hunt organizer Rick Ralston said last Friday he was flooded with calls about the coyote, bobcat and fox hunt slated for northern Arizona over the weekend.

Ralston said one reason for his decision was avoiding a backlash against his Camp Verde sporting goods store.

"All the customers around here supported it, but I respect people's views. When it's not liked by that many people, why stir up trouble?" he asked.

Word of the event led to an uproar from environmental activist groups, though Ralston said it was the third year he has sponsored it.

Ralston said the hunt has always been a small community event where he knew all the hunters. Teams of two or three hunters would compete in a two-day hunt for prize money.

This year, a Flagstaff man saw a flyer and complained to an activist group, which in turn asked state wildlife officials to make such hunts illegal. Once the news media started doing stories about the event, Ralston's store was flooded with about 100 phone calls.

"It went crazy in a matter of a couple of days," he said. "I took all the heat from it."

A lot of callers supported the hunt and some even wanted to enter the contest, but it started to interfere with his business, Ralston said.

It just got to be too much hassle, and the event which was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday was called off.

Organizing hunting contests is not illegal as long as the hunts are within Game and Fish Department regulations.

Public outcry led to cancellation of another hunt in January. The "Predator Hunt Extreme" would have paid the winning team $10,000 for the most mountain lions, coyotes, foxes and bobcats killed.

The flurry surrounding the two contests has led the state Game and Fish Commission to begin considering what, if anything, should be done to regulate predator hunts.

The department does not endorse the hunts, but it can't regulate them, either, without a change in commission policy, said Rory Aikens, a department spokesman.

Ralston and other supporters of the predator hunt contests say they are not unlike what hunters already do on individual basis.

He said he hoped the hunt would reduce the number of coyotes that have been attacking pets and livestock in the area.

Ralston cited such instances as a friend who lost six baby calves, another who lost a cat and someone else who had six sheep killed, all by coyotes.

"The population has gotten out of control," Ralston said. "I don't want to see them become extinct, but I would like to see some kind of control done."