More than 800 coyotes were killed at the direction of the Arizona Game and Fish Department from 2012 to 2014 for the purpose of protecting pronghorn fawns in five areas around the state, agency officials say. Source: azdailysun.com
GR: The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) lets people kill Pronghorn Antelope for the money. Antelope have declined drastically from their original range. However, AZGFD continues to sell Antelope hunting licenses for $103 ($565 non-residents).
“Annual harvests since 1990 have varied between 500 and 700 bucks, with archers taking a proportionally larger percent of the harvest in recent years. Plagued by encroaching subdivisions, increasing highway construction, and other land-use changes, maintaining even the present number of antelope is dependent on citizen involvement and an aggressive translocation program. Approximately 10 percent of the antelope harvest is in areas having reintroduced herds.”
The AZGFD can’t do much about construction and land-use, but they could stop selling hunting licenses. They might have to cut salaries and layoff a few of their wildlife-control staff. But then they wouldn’t have to kill the coyotes.
Even more appropriate in these times of rapidly disappearing wildlife, would be to stop all hunting and call on the people of Arizona to fund the 25% of the AZGFD budget that comes from hunting licenses.
