Wildlife Killing Contests

Wildlife killing contests banned in Massachusetts

On December 18, 2019, the Fisheries and Wildlife Board voted to prohibit wildlife killing contests in the Commonwealth. Regulations went into effect in July 2020.

Check out our Advocate Spotlight on Carole Dembek, an animal advocate who played an integral role in the successful campaign to end wildlife killing contests in the Commonwealth!

Wildlife killing contests are unsporting, exploit wildlife, and disregard ecological impacts. These contests incentivize killing as many animals, or the largest, or sometimes the smallest animal, for cash and prizes. These brutal, senseless contests are out of step with modern conservation science and are opposed by animal advocates, ethical hunters, and Fish and Game Commissioners alike.

For the past several years, coyote killing contests have been held in Hyannis, Granby, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In response to public outcry, however, MassWildlife held a series of public listening sessions throughout 2019 on coyote population management, coyote hunting, and coyote hunting contests. In response to overwhelming public opposition to these contests and in service of codifying their own hunting principles, MassWildlife proposed regulations to ban such contests in July 2019, and the Fisheries and Wildlife Board voted to approve these regulations in December 2019.

These regulations, 321 CMR 2.16 – Prohibition on Contests for the Capture, Take or Waste of Predator and Furbearer Animals, (1) prohibit hunting contests of coyote, bobcat, red fox, gray fox, opossum, raccoon, weasel, fisher, mink, river otter, muskrat, beaver, and skunk; (2) prohibit wanton waste; and (3) tighten harvest reporting requirements for fox and coyote, which allows for better monitoring and enforcement of the aforementioned components.

More about wildlife killing contests:

Wildlife killing contests are blood sports that award cash and other prizes to participants for killing the largest, most, or smallest animal.
As of April 2025, 10 U.S. states have outlawed killing contests—California in 2014, Vermont in 2018, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Arizona in 2019, Colorado and Washington in 2020, Maryland in 2021, and Oregon and New York in 2023.
These contests serve no wildlife management purpose. As the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife has stated, killing contests do not manage coyote populations. Scientists and experts in wildlife management also agree that killing contests do not manage game animal populations or address individual “problem” or “nuisance” coyotes. Visit Project Coyote’s Learning Hub to learn more.

How do the hunting community and Fish and Game Commissions view wildlife killing contests?

Kurt Davis, Arizona Game and Fish Commissioner, stated in June 2019 that, “There are things that people from a social standpoint have a difficulty with, and commissioners listened to that.”
The former president of the California Fish and Game Commission has said, “Awarding prizes for wildlife killing contests is both unethical and inconsistent with our current understanding of natural systems. Such contests are an anachronism and have no place in modern wildlife management.”
The former director of the International Hunter Education Association has stated, “We don’t like anything that smacks of commercialization with money or prizes. Anything that doesn’t honor the animals grates on us and seems inherently wrong. These contests create very poor PR for hunters.”
Hunter and Chairman of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission Mike Finley recently called the contests “slaughter fests” and “stomach-turning examples of wanton waste.”
See more examples in “State agencies and wildlife management professionals quotes on predator control.”

Media coverage:

Inside the Growing and Controversial World of Wildlife-Killing Contests – Rolling Stone, October 13, 2024.
MassWildlife bans predator hunting contests, wanton waste of game – The Boston Globe, December 21, 2019.
Coyote Hunting Contests in Massachusetts Prompt Concern, Conversation – New England Public Radio, May 8, 2019.

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