Coyote shoot nets protest, but no kills

No coyotes were killed this weekend, but the fact that they could have been shot enraged one national animal rights group to take action.

Despite efforts of the group to stop the killing, several hundred hunters were ready to fire away at the first Shaver's Creek Volunteer Fire Company Coyote Shoot.

The two-day contest began Friday and lasted through Saturday. The hunters covered Huntington, Centre, Clearfield, Mifflin, Cambria and Blair counties, said Michael Croyle, an event organizer.

"There were no coyotes killed," Croyle said. "Coyotes are a very difficult animal to kill. They are quite a bit smarter than humans."

- Michael Croyle, event organizer

Friends of Animals staged a written protest through letters to Gov. Tom Ridge, University President Graham Spanier and the manager of Rothrock State Forest lands, asking them to prohibit the shooting on the lands, according to a news release from the organization.

The Friends of Animals organization has stopped animal-killing contests in other states in the Pacific Northwest, according to the organization's World Wide Web site.

Croyle said the protests had no effect on the turnout at the contest.

The letter to the governor by Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral called for legislation to outlaw animal-killing contests.

"Animal-killing competitions are deliberately cruel and ecologically destructive," Feral said in the letter to Ridge.

The letter to Spanier asked him to prevent shootings from taking place on University lands, where the organizers of the event recommended the hunters shoot.

"The lands were University lands, but they are open to the shooters just as they are always open to the public," Croyle said.

Croyle said the fire company plans to make the shooting an annual fund-raising event.