Blood Sport
The
January sun is weak by early afternoon. The
grass, brittle and brown. Low-lying cactus
punctuate the open area strewn with small rocks
and a smattering of mesquite trees. Jake and his
friends use an ATV to drive far from town along
a well-used dirt road. “What’s the plan?” one of
the guys in the backseat asks. There’s a slight
pause before Jake responds: “Kill shit; get
money.”
Jake
(whose last name has been withheld for privacy)
and his three buddies are participating in the
January 2020 West Texas Big Bobcat Contest. Over
the next 23 hours, this foursome will compete
against hundreds of other teams for cash,
equipment, and other prizes to kill as many
foxes, coyotes, and bobcats as they can within
the regulation timeframe.
Jake
parks the vehicle. The group, dressed in full
camouflage, unloads several rifles, ammunition,
and calling apparatus. Then, with five words, he
aptly describes this whole affair: “It’s about
to get nuts.”
It
is predator-hunting contest season across the
United States. These popular, legally sanctioned
events take place on private, state, and federal
lands in 42 of the 50 states every year and draw
unknown thousands of participants. Tonight’s
contest in San Angelo, Texas, is taking place
simultaneously with another local hunt, one that
includes raccoons. With 717 teams of about four
members each participating in Big Bobcat, and
upwards of 400 teams of four in the neighboring
contest, there are a few thousand hunters out
there within two hours driving distance of the
weigh-in site, shooting for sport.
*
Writer Kim Frank’s
feature, published as our 2022 Summer issue
cover story, has received a first
honorable mention in the 2023
Society for Environmental Journalists awards.
Frank, the judges said, “vividly describes the
teams of heavily armed hunters whose mission is
to shoot as many foxes, coyotes, and bobcats as
they can to qualify for prizes of up to
$50,000.”
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