‘Road Rage in Cody, billboard battle over wildlife rages on
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Cody area, it seems, has been a hotbed for billboard wars over the killing of Wyoming wildlife. At this point, it is difficult to tell who started it but rubbernecking tourists are getting an eyeful traveling through Cody into Yellowstone.
The latest round was launched by Project Coyote, whose 2013 billboard likely touched off the sparring between two groups that cannot be easily pigeonholed.
The latest salvo is aimed at drivers traveling from Cody to Yellowstone National Park who can’t miss a large billboard featuring a wolf and a call to action to end a largely underground practice known as wildlife-killing contests.
Michelle Lute, national carnivore conservation manager for Project Coyote, said most people are not aware of the bloodsport events, where participants compete to kill the most, largest or smallest animals for cash, belt buckles or other prizes.
She pointed out the practice does not align with widely accepted hunting ethics or values around how wildlife should be treated.
“They use night optics, huge high-powered rifles to rip the animal apart such that they couldn’t even use the pelts,” Lute explained. “They’re just wasted, piled up, and they’re tossed aside like garbage. So, this is not hunting.”
Defenders of the practice claim killing predators will help protect pets, livestock and big game.
Meanwhile, local Scott Weber is the man behind another billboard welcoming travelers to the great state of Wyoming with a decidedly charged message: “Welcome to Wyoming! Here we hunt, trap, shoot, and wear fur. Enjoy All!”
Weber has admitted the message is intended to be taunting in nature, and aimed squarely at “Californians and Jackson Hole types” who are ruining the Cowboy State with their liberal viewpoints.
“Cody is very, very pro-gun,” Weber says. He owns an online arms dealership Gun Runner Auctions.
The latest pushback targets so-called killing contests where prizes are given away for most kills.
Fifty organizations across the nation have launched campaigns to end the contests, and so far seven states have banned the practice. The billboard campaign promotes a petition to end killing contests on public lands, at Project Coyote.
Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, said there are non-lethal, and less expensive, tools that are far more effective at preventing conflicts with predators. She noted randomly killing coyotes won’t reduce populations because the animals respond to losses by expanding their litter sizes.
“There’s not any kind of wildlife-management benefit to it,” Combs contended. “There’s not any conflict-reduction management. It’s literally just killing for the sake of killing.”
Lute added the contests are out of step with the economic future facing Wyoming communities as revenues from extraction industries continue to decline. She sees opportunity in the growing demand for people to access wild areas, which Lute believes will require finding better ways to coexist with wildlife.
“We see the future, especially across the American West for local and regional economies, is about outdoor recreation,” Lute asserted. “That’s going to bring money into places like Cody, Wyoming. It’s not about killing and taking out wildlife that everyone values and belongs to all Americans.”
