A group protesting a Predator Masters convention in Tucson gathered Thursday afternoon at West Speedway and North Silverbell Road.
Predator Masters is holding a convention in the Tucson area Thursday through Saturday — and animal protection advocates say the group’s previous conventions have included daily predator hunts that amount to “killing contests” and an “indiscriminate slaughter” of coyotes.
Predator Masters held hunts in New Mexico in recent years, but Las Cruces city officials passed a resolution opposing hunts by Predator Masters. This year's convention was moved to Tucson.
A spokesman for Predator Masters emphasized last week that the nonprofit, web-based group won’t organize or direct the hunting activities of group members during the convention in Tucson.
"We are not organizing a hunt. We are not organizing a contest. It’s just people privately deciding they’d like to go out and hunt” on public lands with the appropriate hunting licenses, spokesman Bob Lemons told the Star last week.
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“It’s absolutely not true that it’s a slaughter,” Lemons said, noting that hunters target a variety of predators in addition to coyotes. Among them: bobcats, foxes, raccoons, ringtail cats and coatimundis.
Also, Pima County officials have asked the Arizona Game and Fish Department to help it stop any organized hunting on county lands during the convention.
