In the last ten days, Wolf Patrol has been featuring the highly unethical, yet common practice amongst Wisconsin’s hound hunters of allowing dogs to fight and maul live coyotes. Our report has resulted in a criminal investigation of this practice by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) conservation officers, who assure us that the practice is also illegal.

Despite our very public calling out of the common practice, hound hunters in Wisconsin continue to feature videos and photos of their dogs fighting coyotes on their social media accounts. To Wolf Patrol, the continued discovery of evidence of this illegal activity is an indication that such examples are not isolated incidents, but normal behavior unquestioned by the many hound hunters sharing their videos and photos on Facebook.

For the hound hunting community, Facebook has become a platform to promote their unethical and illegal sport, while also giving the rest of the world a look into the dark underbelly of legal hound hunting practices allowed by WDNR in Wisconsin. These aren’t videos and photos Wolf Patrol has taken, they are provided by Wisconsin’s hound hunters themselves.

Today we feature the legalized dog fighting practices of Francis Metz, a coyote, bobcat and bear hunter from Mishicot, Wisconsin who is also a hunting companion to wild animal abuser, Nicholas Valenta whose videos of coyote mauling have been published in earlier Wolf Patrol reports and are also being investigated by WDNR.

“Get’em dogs!!!” Metz can be heard yelling as his hounds stand off with a exhausted coyote after his dogs have ran the animal down, “Shake that fucker up!!!” The 2014 video is accompanied on Metz’s Facebook page with numerous photos of his hounds with this and other cornered wildlife in Wisconsin being illegally tormented.

Another one of Metz’s hunting companion’s is Zach Jansky, of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Another coyote, bobcat, bear and raccoon hounder, Jansky’s Facebook page features multiple photos of the coyotes his hounds have killed over the years, including photos of a cornered coyote in a culvert in Wisconsin, with the caption, “#24 coyote bayed up in a huge culvert! Gator, Gage and Sugar….no shells need, just kick ass never back down dogs!!!”

 

Its time to for the reign of violence to end on Wisconsin’s public lands, which have become the legalized dog fighting grounds for hound hunters like Francis Metz, Zach Jansky and Nicholas Valenta. If you agree that hunting coyotes with hounds in Wisconsin is a form of animal abuse not welcomed in our civilized society, please contact the five elected Wisconsin politicians listed below who are legislating in favor of its protection.

Wisconsin’s wildlife belongs to everyone, not only those looking for live bait for their bloodthirsty hounds. No ethical hunter in Wisconsin should support these illegal practices which tarnish the entire hunting community in Wisconsin. If hunters are fearful of losing their rights to hunt, then its time to clean up your act and report abusers who will ultimately cost you your sport.