It's coyote-killing contest weekend in WI

You can add to this weekend's coyote killing contest up north a similar tournament in a statewide series
in southern Wisconsin near Dane County, reports Isthmus.

The contest in Sauk City, which takes place from Jan. 18 to 20, is the second of three hunts...

In the event, teams of two hunters compete to see who can kill the most coyotes using calls (dogs and baiting are not allowed). Ties are settled by the combined weight of the animals. The entrance fee is $100, with options to pay an extra $20 for two side contests for biggest and smallest animal killed.

The state has chosen not to provide protection to coyotes, despite Wisconsin wildlife belonging to all the people of of the state under the public trust doctrine. 

In that context, the conclusion of a long and annotated discussion of the Public Trust Doctrine contained a logic applicable to these coyote hunts, the relentless pressure for more wolf hunting and other barbaric practices I'd noted on this blog.

Note these words of wisdom by the great Wisconsin naturalist and scientist Aldo Leopold:

"All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. 

His instincts prompt him to compete for his place in that community, but his ethics prompt him also to co-operate(perhaps in order that there may be a place to compete for). 

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, or animals, or collectively: the land.... 

In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow members, and also respect for the community as such." 

A Sand County Almanac: and Sketches Here and There, Oxford University Press, 1949.