THE WESTERNER: Nevada Coyote Hunting Tournament Draws Large Participation

A group of local coyote hunters are drawing a lot of attention, turning the killing into a competition. Whoever kills the most coyotes wins. It's a controversial sport that has people questioning the ethics behind hunting contests. At 5 p.m. on Saturday, more than 30 teams of hunters gathered at The Wayside, a bar in the North Valleys to count their coyote kills. These guys have been on the hunt since the break of dawn. "Anytime you get one is pretty fun," said Sony Williamson, a participant said. "Usually, it's pretty hard to get one. It's not something you should go sit down and one comes in. It takes some practice and calling." Williamson has been hunting coyotes since he was 12 years old. "They're so plentiful, you'll never shoot them extinct or anything. They're really prolific," he added. In northern Nevada, coyotes are an unprotected species, which means hunters don't need a license to kill them. More than anything, they consider coyotes to be pests. "There's a lot of ranchers and cows and sheep," he added. "Coyotes really devastate the ranchers' livelihood and they kill at lot of deer and birds." It's why Jason Schroeder created a coyote killing tournament for avid hunters to conduct, what they believe to be, a population control. "It's the one thing that's great about the state of Nevada: we have the right to hunt, we have a right to bear arms," Schroeder said. "We love to hunt and this is what we do."...more