Our deep dive into cruel predator-hunting contests in the US receives recognition.

News of the world environment

 NEWSLETTER | NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Blood Sport

The January sun is weak by early afternoon. The grass, brittle and brown. Low-lying cactus punctuate the open area strewn with small rocks and a smattering of mesquite trees. Jake and his friends use an ATV to drive far from town along a well-used dirt road. “What’s the plan?” one of the guys in the backseat asks. There’s a slight pause before Jake responds: “Kill shit; get money.”

Jake (whose last name has been withheld for privacy) and his three buddies are participating in the January 2020 West Texas Big Bobcat Contest. Over the next 23 hours, this foursome will compete against hundreds of other teams for cash, equipment, and other prizes to kill as many foxes, coyotes, and bobcats as they can within the regulation timeframe.

Jake parks the vehicle. The group, dressed in full camouflage, unloads several rifles, ammunition, and calling apparatus. Then, with five words, he aptly describes this whole affair: “It’s about to get nuts.”

It is predator-hunting contest season across the United States. These popular, legally sanctioned events take place on private, state, and federal lands in 42 of the 50 states every year and draw unknown thousands of participants. Tonight’s contest in San Angelo, Texas, is taking place simultaneously with another local hunt, one that includes raccoons. With 717 teams of about four members each participating in Big Bobcat, and upwards of 400 teams of four in the neighboring contest, there are a few thousand hunters out there within two hours driving distance of the weigh-in site, shooting for sport.

*

Writer Kim Frank’s feature, published as our 2022 Summer issue cover story, has received a first honorable mention in the 2023 Society for Environmental Journalists awards. Frank, the judges said, “vividly describes the teams of heavily armed hunters whose mission is to shoot as many foxes, coyotes, and bobcats as they can to qualify for prizes of up to $50,000.”

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Photo courtesy of USFWS

Trigger warning: Images of hunted animals in this feature might be upsetting.

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