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PETA Wants 'Coon Dog Water Race' Stopped


Using a Raccoon as 'Bait' Is Cruel and Illegal, Group Believes

For Immediate Release:
August 5, 2009
Contact:
Stephanie Bell 757-622-7382

Columbus, Ohio -- PETA is urging Johnstown and Licking County officials to end the annual Sportsmen's Club's Swappers Day event's cruel "coon dog water race." In the "race," a terrified, caged raccoon is hauled on a small raft across a stretch of water as a pack of frantic dogs swims after the animal. The young raccoon who will apparently be used as this year's "bait" is confined to a small cage and will remain there until the event, which is still nearly a month away. PETA believes that the event violates Ohio's anti-cruelty statutes, which state that no person shall torture or carry an animal in a cruel or inhumane manner.
"What kind of person thinks that it's sporting to cage a young raccoon for months and set a pack of frantic dogs loose on the terrified animal as part of a 'contest' that violates state anti-cruelty laws?" says Stephanie Bell, PETA's cruelty casework manager. "This is a cruel and shameful throwback to a time before anyone realized that animals suffer."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Johnstown and Licking County officials follows.
August 5, 2009
Your urgent attention is requested. PETA is the world's largest animal rights organization, with more than 2 million members and supporters. This letter concerns the "coon dog water race" planned for Labor Day weekend at the annual Sportsmen's Club's Swapper's Day event. We have also received reports that a juvenile raccoon is reportedly being kept cruelly caged by a member and/or employee of the Johnstown Community Sportsmen's Club with the alleged intent of using the raccoon as "bait" for this event (which is more than a month away). We share the concerns of compassionate Licking County residents who have contacted us about this matter -- one of whom provided footage of last year's event, which can be viewed here. We implore you to view this short clip (we can provide a link to those receiving this letter via fax or hard copy; please provide an e-mail address).
As you may know, the "coon dog water race" involves hauling a caged raccoon on a small raft across a stretch of water, with a pack of frantic dogs swimming in chase. Imagine the sheer terror that a captive wild animal -- who, just like us, can experience confusion, stress, fear, and pain -- would endure during this incomprehensible and sadistic ordeal. With respect to local traditions, this activity is not "sporting" in any way: It is grossly inhumane by every common measure -- and also clearly illegal. Ohio's anti-cruelty statute states that "no person shall [t]orture ... [or] ... [c]arry or convey an animal in a cruel or inhuman[e] manner." The statute defines "cruelty," "torment," and "torture" as "every act, omission or neglect by which unnecessary or unjustifiable ... suffering is caused, permitted, or allowed to continue, when there is a reasonable remedy or relief." Veterinarian and/or wildlife experts are available to attest to the fact that the treatment of this wild animal constitutes torture and that the manner of the animal's conveyance is inhumane to the extreme.
Organizers have apparently refused to acknowledge that this event is cruel and illegal, so we are now turning to Licking County officials. We are certain that you -- like the area residents who have contacted us -- have no tolerance for cruelty to animals in any form, whether it is the use of live animals as "bait" on Swapper's Day or the confinement of this young raccoon. On behalf of our thousands of members in Ohio, we respectfully urge you to permanently end the "coon dog water race" and replace it with an event that does not involve animals. We also ask for your assurance that Johnstown Community Sportsmen's Club will be made aware that the confinement of this animal is cruel and unacceptable and that it must end.

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Registered: Jul 2003
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Posts: 284

Wow, I sure would have guessed in Ohio you could catch a coon in a trap most any night. I never figured you'd have to catch one "month's" in advance and then keep it fed and watered until "the day".

Once again, they're preaching to their choir.....but they still need to be fought off.

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Registered: Nov 2007
Location: Northern Michigan
Posts: 659

With this Michael Vick thing going on there is gonna be more and more of this animal abuse stuff out there.

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Registered: Feb 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 667

These idiots more than likely have their precious little birdie in a cage and think nothing of it...lol

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Registered: Apr 2006
Location: Utica, Ohio
Posts: 1023

Yea here we go again been hearin this since it started. These people need to get a life

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Registered: Apr 2009
Location: Spring Grove, Va
Posts: 268

Hey guys they dont have anything to live for they are abunch of loony idiots that would rather make love to their pets and run around with anti-everything signs!!

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Registered: Mar 2006
Location: INDIANA
Posts: 480

I don't think it will do any good, we should have stopped them dead in their tracks from the beginning but like alot of people we sit on our behinds and think someone else will watch out for us.

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Registered: Apr 2006
Location: Utica, Ohio
Posts: 1023

All this crap started when someone was at the sportsmens club with a coon in a trap they were using for water races. Well there was either a member of peta or an animal lover there and they started all this. So now there saying they have to use a fake coon for the water race this year at swappers day and if we at the coonhunters club wanna have a treeing contest at our club someone has to get a permit to be able to have a coon in a trap. These idiots need to be put in check in a hurry before they ruin one of the greatest traditions ever. How do these people think all there ancestors lived and survived hundreds of years ago. Its getting to be ridiculous there are alot more serious things happening than a **** coon in a trap that they need to worry about

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these are all valid points. BUT my question is... they are getting more and more MONEY behind them... what can we do to preserve our sport!?!?

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

if you were to ask how many people actually do anything to oppose the erosion of our ways, you will find that very few, if any do anything. peta exists because they, like us, have it too easy. they have too much time on their hands and nothing important to do. if hunting coon was part of our job, we would be fighting them big time. if it were really important, a houndsman somewhere would have killed a peta person somewhere, somehow. isn't that what happens when something is taken away from someone else. btw, i'm not advocating killing anyone. i'm just saying, there is always someone killed. if peta needed to work harder to make a living, they wouldn't care to mess with animal rights. what we do for fun is a blood sport, no less than cock fighting, dog fighting, bull fighting, mma fighting and boxing. it's not a matter of what's right or wrong, it's a matter of who will make the biggest demonstration and the most noise to our elected officials. clearly, peta takes animal rights more seriously than we take our right to a blood sport.
i'm a member of the americans for prosperity. we're getting bigger but it's amazing how few people have heard of us or even watch fox news and here we are about to let the government take over healthcare. the biggest power grab in the history of this country. i have one word for people, wakeup!

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Registered: Jul 2009
Location: Western WI
Posts: 783

The public needs to be educated on the actions of responsible hunters. If I had read the little blurb that was initially posted without a little knowledge, I would have been horrified too. it sounds like they put a coon in a cage and then let a pack of dogs rip it apart.

The more responsible hunters can do to help the general public understand the sport, the fewer fence ridders you will have believing the propoganda of extremist groups.

You can attach PETA until you pass out and never gain any ground. You just sound like a zealot on the opposite end of the spectrum. Getting to the people standing on middle ground, and swaying them, is about the only hope.

JMO

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 4324

It's illegal to use a live animal as bait or as a lure in Texas. Our club uses a scented stuffed coon for our field trials because you never know who might show up to check on what you're doing.

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: maryland
Posts: 596

Here is a website for which you can direct people to see the real peta, it shows their terrorist ties, and how diluted their minds are.
There is not a day that goes by that I do not direct atleast one person to this site or show someone what they are really about. Educate yourself with some of the quotes and beliefs of these nuts, this way you can actually tell people facts. this raises enough questions in some and they will check it out on their own. I know several that have came back and told me they looked into it, and have now see the truths of this terrorist organization, now they no longer support them. Remember logical people can see the truths and will listen, get them on board.
www.animalscam.com

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Last edited by jtwsr on 08-18-2009 at 09:50 PM

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Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:

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Originally posted by StackemUp
these are all valid points. BUT my question is... they are getting more and more MONEY behind them... what can we do to preserve our sport!?!?

---

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Registered: Apr 2009
Location: Spring Grove, Va
Posts: 268

quote:

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Originally posted by CSnowgren
Yup, and they will kick our collective azzes if we don't start taking them seriously.

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Registered: Oct 2006
Location: sandhills
Posts: 657

state laws and that counties ordinances and see what grounds they have,make sure my permits are valied,and when they show up to ruin the event,and they will,have the Licking county officers to escort them right off the property.See what the counties ordinances are for unlawful protest,or assembly are.START putting up a no camras or camcorders on property signs up.OR use a hide or stuff coon that day and make them look stuppid.

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: s.c.
Posts: 6984

"In the race a terrified caged Brama Bull blah, blah, blah--while a frantic cowbow tries to hold on 8 seconds."

If I can read body language, that coon is saying "bring it on, sucker".

Last edited by l.lyle on 08-19-2009 at 08:37 AM

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Registered: Apr 2006
Location: Missouri
Posts: 105

Looks to me like PETA needs to concentrate on looking in the backyards at all the "family pets" being left behind after the "family" moves, pets abused, mistreated, those out in the hot sun either tied or loose lacking shade, water, food or shelter for days on end and that would keep them busy from here to eternity. Those are the animals that are suffering. They need to get their priorities straight. Wonder how many of them eat beef, pork and chicken? Something tells me they aren't to worried about cruelty to animals when they are setting at the dinner table!!!!

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Registered: Apr 2009
Location: Spring Grove, Va
Posts: 268

I live 30 min from PETAs home base in Norfolk Va, Our local radio station has an annual fishing tournament that is held in 500 yard stretch of water so they get look out of there windows at us catching all those poor little fish! They come out on there waterfront balconies and never say a word while smoking there cigarettes but 9 outta 10 of them throw there butts right in the river! Sounds to me like these jacka$$'s dont give a **** about nature or helping to preserve it....... Also kinda recently a few PETA people were caught dumping dead dogs and cats in a dumpster behind a store! Things like this are what our clubs and associations should be diving on to kill their credability! I live in a state where hunting deer with hounds is still legal in most countys.. PETA hates the fact, in fact they steal hunting dogs regularly around here, so me Ill talk purity shat about them any chance I get because the flip side of PETA is abuch of lawbreakers , litterbugs and theives!

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Registered: Oct 2006
Location: sandhills
Posts: 657

They want you to not own a pet period,and will break laws to get what they want.

We have Reps,and Senators ON STATE and FEDERAL levels, find out who they are and let them know how you think on things.

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Registered: Nov 2008
Location: Hickory Corners Mi
Posts: 134

m mauger, i know that fishin tournament very well as i fished in it for 3 years while stationed in norfolk. for all those that dont know talk about on heck of a good time. if you didnt have a boat someone was usually more than happy to let ya aboard if not just fish from the banks. sure we stirred the pot a bit but there was nothin they could do since we were all licensed.

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Registered: Apr 2009
Location: Spring Grove, Va
Posts: 268

Yes that was exactly the case I was referring too man! Talk about the failing judicial system! The tournament is put on byFM99 WNOR out of Norfolk Va... And it is a darn good time! Nukeum did you ever place LOL?

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Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Ruffin , NC
Posts: 260

Heard on the new's where they raided a cockfight and saved over 100 rooster's and then destroyed them themselfs. Does that make any smart's to anyone.
Sounds like a money issue,(politics) more than carring about the animals.

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Registered: May 2009
Location: Tonkawa Oklahoma
Posts: 5587

Ask them how long the chicken on there dinner table lived and what kind of life it led. Then show them how a fighting rooster gets treated and how long they live. ( :

All this coon thing is our fault though. We should be traping and releasing IN THERE BACK YARD

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Registered: Nov 2008
Location: Hickory Corners Mi
Posts: 134

m mauger nah i never placed i was just happy sippin on a beer gettin my line wet. is mike powers still dj'n there

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