Protest and News Conference: PETA to Defend Coyotes by Calling For State Protections
For Immediate Release:
June 14, 2024
Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382
PETA representatives—flanked by a pack of supporters wearing coyote masks—will hold a news conference outside the headquarters of the California Fish and Game Commission on Tuesday to call for regulations that ban gassing coyotes to death and that prohibit cities from contracting with private trappers who trap and kill these “song dogs” on public land. Photos will be available via Dropbox after the event.
Where: Outside the California Fish and Game Commission, 715 P St., Sacramento
When: Tuesday, June 18, 11 a.m.
The news conference will highlight the group’s petition for rulemaking, which the Fish and Game Commission will consider at its June 19–20 meeting, in response to Southern California cities’ contracts with a private trapper—Jimmie Rizzo of Coyote, Wildlife & Pest Solutions Inc.—who uses a gas chamber in the back of his truck to kill coyotes and has repeatedly self-reported setting snare traps near dozens of homes in possible violation of state law.
Members of PETA will speak about the legal ramifications of the trappings and killings and show footage of coyotes caught in snare traps and coyote-sized dogs sent to gas chambers to highlight the immense suffering and terror caused by these lethal methods.
“It’s time to put trappers on notice for cruelly killing California’s wildlife, who should be respected, not slowly strangled in snares and gassed in the back of a truck,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA is urging state lawmakers to ban cities from senselessly exterminating animals who are simply trying to survive.”
According to contracts between Rizzo’s company and Anaheim, Rancho Palos Verdes, and Torrance, each city has spent between $105,000 and $215,000 in taxpayer money on coyote-trapping programs—despite extensive research demonstrating that lethal removal doesn’t control the animals’ populations or minimize conflicts with humans. None of the cities could produce a single public record showing that they exercise any oversight of Rizzo’s use of a gas chamber, which Californians historically have opposed.
To encourage coyotes to leave residential neighborhoods, PETA and California state authorities recommend that homeowners remove food sources and keep companion animals indoors and garbage tightly sealed.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
