Hunting's bad enough. This is even worse.

                                                                                   National Geographic pic

Saturday fun (for some):  Hunting?  No, worse yet.  Killing raccoons for the “fun” of it.  That’s what the "press advisory" below boils down to. 

Unfortunately, New Jersey’s vaunted uniqueness includes allowing some barbaric human behavior toward our wildlife, like today’s “coon chase” that’s underway as I type this post.  

What kind of human beings, in supposedly enlightened 2020, would participate in such activity? And what kind of state Division of Fish and Wildlife would permit it?

With a few italics added for emphasis, here’s the press advisory I received yesterday:

                                                          National Geographic pic

Raccoon “hunts” are a despicable, thrill-kill form of cruelty encouraged and allowed by New Jersey Fish and Game Council and the Division of Fish and Wildlife.  The abuse is on a par with bear baiting, cock fighting, dog fighting, and other relics of man’s barbarity to animals.

As the attached Facebook event page shows, a small group calling itself “Wildlife Women” emanating from Kentucky is sponsoring a “coon chase” tomorrow, February 15 , in Hampton, which is part of Bethlehem Township, from 4 in the afternoon to 1 a.m.  What will transpire will go something like this:

  The relentless mob of hunters and their trained dogs ended up chasing this trembling innocent up a tree, where she fearfully struggled to climb as high as possible, understandably frightened for her life as she attempted to cling to the ever-narrowing tree trunk—the dogs wildly baying all the while from down below. Finally, after they had apparently squeezed all the laughter and “enjoyment” they could out of watching their terrorized victim caught in the glare of their flashlights, rifles were raised and gunfire ensued.    --  Coon hunting deserves no celebration  MountainXpress, July 2007

                                               NG pic

If this is not the prohibited “needless” torture and killing codified in NJSA 4:22-117, then nothing is.  It also abuses other animals, dogs, in the process of torturing raccoons:

4:22-17 Cruelty; certain acts, crime; degrees. a. It shall be unlawful to: (1) Overdrive, overload, drive when overloaded, overwork, abuse, or needlessly kill a living animal or creature; (2) Cause or procure, by any direct or indirect means, including but not limited to through the use of another living animal or creature, any of the acts described in paragraph (1) of this subsection to be done.

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s condoning of this abject cruelty and depraved human behavior is unconscionable. Recently we’ve seen other fish and wildlife agencies in other states condemn inappropriate behavior on the part of hunters, yet our New Jersey agency sadly overlooks it.  It also allows unsporting and ecologically damaging baiting banned by neighboring states. “Coon” killing is yet another example.

                                                          National Geographic pic

The Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police should investigate this event for violations of New Jersey animal cruelty statutes. The law’s provisions apply to the “whole brute creation.”  By definition, these animals are needlessly and cruelly killed. They are inarguably tortured and abused for amusement, no less, and generally discarded as trash.  Shotgun shells damage the skins; they cannot be sold as fur. There is absolutely no wildlife management purpose to this event and others like it.

The general public is overwhelmingly disgusted by these killing events which have no place in civilized society in 2020.  Wildlife is a public trust. Given New Jersey’s non-hunting majority cannot exercise its standing and rights through an agency and council dominated by hunters, the public can at least insist on the enforcement of animal cruelty statutes.

For more on killing contests encouraged by the Fish and Game Council and the Division of Fish and Wildlife, see recent Humane Society of the United States undercover investigations of hunting contests in Barnegat, New Jersey and another in New York State, where dozens of animals were killed and then thrown away. https://www.humanesociety.org/news/undercover-investigation-exposes-gruesome-wildlife-killing-contests

New Jersey residents need to know such heinous things can happen here – and demand an end to them.

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