http://www.ktvz.com/news/settlement-ends-se-oregon-coyotekilling-contest/27151616

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) � An animal-rights group and the organizer of an annual coyote-killing contest in southeast Oregon have settled competing lawsuits with an agreement that there will be no more hunting contests.

Coyotes are classified as predatory animals under Oregon law, and there are no limits on killing them. Faced with that reality, the Animal Legal Defense Fund sued on the grounds that the contest violated anti-gambling laws.

Organizer Duane Freilino said Friday he agreed to the contest-ending settlement because he ran out of money to pay attorneys.

Stephen Wells, executive director of the animal-rights group, says the agreement means hundreds of coyotes can live peacefully in the wilderness.

Freilino said he started the contest almost a decade ago to increase winter tourism in the sparsely populated region and to help ranchers by reducing coyote numbers before calving season.

Pfffffffffffttttttttt.

I'd host one every year.




Travis

funk that.

Road trip.

No more coyote hunting contests.........

Just have a varmint contest.

Money for the largest and most.

So, ONE GUY agreed not to have a coyote contest. What did the rest of the guys agree to? All-righty then.....

Just talked to Duane on the phone today.

That didn't set well with him. He had to take out a loan on his pickup to settle the lawsuit.

Sounds like the weigh in should be in Wells' front yard, whata dumbass

Since he is the only one that agreed to that there is nothing to stop everyone in that town from having their own coyote contest.

There really should be a varmint hunt organized. I'd drive up from OK.

Exactly. Everyone can show up without an official leader/organizer to sue, and still have their fun. Having the gathering 20 miles in on a SE Oregon desert road (rocky as hell, and impassable when it rains) would also keep the hippy and his Prius from finding the party in the first place.

I've participated in a coyote contest in the North Eastern Corner of California's Modoc County for several years.
Last year the media got hold of the event and a reporter from a liberal rag in Chico Ca figured he'd go up there and do an expose on the hunt.
He got a little more than he'd bargained for...

This is a good read.

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/coyote-hunt/content?oid=9154522

222, I'm stealing your signature.

Feel free. I stole it from Winnie.

not picking a fight here Chris, but I have a feeling that Duane lives like I do out in the country with "close" neighbors miles away. town for us is incidental. we shoot yotes on sight because they can cost us tens of thousands in a years time. its bad enough for the bastids to kill a calf but some times they will maim a cow and that is a long term loss. anytime there is a threat via animals here we all get together and have a hunt. I suspicion this is how Duane started his hunt.
this is the favorite tactic of the left. bankrupt via litigation.
BASTIDS!

Freilino had filed a counterclaim for $100,000. Arguing the counter-suit was an attempt at intimidation, the groups filed a motion to dismiss the counter-suit, leading Freilino to drop his meritless claim and settle the lawsuit against him by agreeing never to host another hunting contest in Oregon and to pay $5,252 in attorney fees to the animal groups.

http://aldf.org/press-room/press-releases/animal-protection-groups-stop-coyote-killing-contest/

That is exactly the way it is.

Duane makes $2500 a month working as a cowboy for a large remotely located ranch.

He didn't have the funds to hire enough lawyers to compete with the 4-5 lawyers that the environmentalists have on staff full time.

What the news story didn't mention is the calls to Duane threatening to kill him and his wife, so that they could kidnap his young daughter and raise her so that she wouldn't have to be around hunting.

The harassing calls went on for some time....

Salmonella,

Here's a quote from that Chico news piece you linked:
-----------------------
"Coyotes feed mostly on rodents, and in doing so keep in check the population of the animals most responsible for transmitting such deadly diseases as hantavirus and bubonic plague. Last summer, nine people contracted hantavirus in Yosemite National Park; three of them died."
-----------------------

Doesn't the writer know that there isn't any coyote hunting in Yosemite NP? Doesn't what happened in Yosemite with the unhunted coyotes not taking care of the hantavirus carrying rodents smash all of his theories about how the world of predators works (i.e., you should leave the coyotes alone so they take care of the disease-carrying rodents)? Apparently the coyotes in Yosemite don't do a good job or don't know the job the leftist huggers have assigned to them.

On another, separate note, from the descriptions in the linked story, it appears there are some good law enforcement personnel in Northeastern California.

The people making those murderous threats need to be put UNDER the jail - those are truly sick, perverted, vile, and violent terrorists who would make such threats. Some of those leftist animal huggers are as bad as, if not worse than, al-Qaeda.

What a putz!
He played their game by their rules and got his butt handed to him. What a surprise! (Not)

What a delusional asswipe, he needs to get a grip on reality.

We should have a Campfire Coyote hunt in Oregon�no prizes so no one gets in trouble, but kill everything in sight and post lotsa pics!

Agreed!

we should have a camp fire hunt in Oregon for eco-terrorist. with prizes!

Hi
Could we send Duane Freilino, donations? I would kick in some to help with his bills. Could some one do this, maybe set up an account at his bank of some thing? Or just the name of his bank, we could send checks there for him.
jim

What would you have done differently?

There have to be lawyers who do pro bono work for people like Duane. You'd think. I'd kick in a few bucks for his cause.

Barry is a complete idiot.

The problem was the guy ran the contest too close to the Oregon gambling statutes. He's now out of the game.

Okay, fine. That doesn't bar anyone else from running a "coyote derby" or similar, and they can read the filings by the nut jobs to figure out their line of attack. Steer clear of the gambling regs, and you're good to go.

The gambling statues were not anymore in violation than a rodeo, a car race, golf tournament, or any other contest of skill that pays an entry fee to compete in any event that pays prize money to the winners.

They knew they couldn't win that way.

How they win is by filing motion after motion in the court with their staff of full time attorneys. They bombard YOUR attorney with all the motions for this or that, and he has to legally go through them and respond, and the legal bill you have spirals out of control. They can keep you tied up in court for years.

His attorney said his total legal bill could easily exceed $100-150k.

The pressure was getting to his wife with the mounting bills, threats of violence and lack of support.

I don't judge Duane for giving up the fight.

I do think that he contacted the very organizations he could for help, and got ignored. None of them would help. None. He fought this alone.

I don't disagree with your assessment at all. However, if the statute wasn't in question in the first place then there would be no case. They have to at least make a prima facie case to survive a motion to dismiss. That, they did.

I am not judging him at all for his actions (Duane). I'm simply saying what can be done differently.

The other part of this is NEVER run such an event on your own. Get a few folks together, form a legal entity to run it, make sure that it has liability insurance, proper legal filings protecting the individuals, etc., and have IT run the show. That way the legal entity is on the hook and not you.

He could have done that and gotten the case dismissed, but he filed a countersuit because of the threats and stuff. That threw the case into a different realm of legality where he would have been responsible for all their legal costs in the event of losing, and had a larger burden of proof.

The environmentalists knew they couldn't win with that reasoning for illegal gambling.... They wanted to break him with legal fees. And they did.

That's how they win.

That was his mistake, then.

A motion to dismiss might have sufficed. Get that done, then file suit against them or if any further threats continue have charges pressed. One thing at a time.

None of this impacts anyone else from doing things properly, though.

These radical groups have very deep pockets, way too deep for the average guy to fight, even if he's in the right. The only way is for him to be backed by a group with equally deep pockets and that doesn't happen nearly often enough. A 'loser pays' law would help considerably.

Even then, they will run you out of town.

I have seen the environmentalists run an entire organization out of town with their anti-hunting agenda.

It was his lawyer's mistake.

Speaking of lawyers,,,, wonder why some of the know it all counselors that like to hunt in OR didn't jump in and take the case pro-bono?

There are hunter harassment laws in place for exactly that reason. Use them. It works, and has worked in many states.

Obviously.

Damned good question.

No, I mean they were literally run out of town by the city council. Seriously.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruce...-council-opposes-yearly-predator-hunters

I'm in!

Will there be beer?

Have gun, will travel.

OH! BS!
Paying the winner prizes is too close to gambling? Really? Do you know how stupid YOU sound?

There isn't a legal strategy that you or anyone else suggested that would have chalked up a real "W" on this one. Because there was no real "W", only the wasting of resources.

Now, this azzhole has ended up PAYING the terrorists so they can do it again to someone else. Should we be thanking him for that?

smokepole, there isn't a lawyer around that would take a loser case like this. Because the object of the plaintiff wasn't to win, it was, as has been pointed out innumerable times, to drain the defendant. It doesn't take a law degree to do the math on this.

On further reflection, I apologize for calling him a putz.

The real people to blame are his so-called friends.
Friends that he obviously doesn't have any of, friends who couldn't be bothered to do anything but chatter about his plight like a bunch of women at an alcoholic uncle's funeral. Friends who really didn't give a schitt about the coyote hunt. Friends who really don't care if coyote hunting is even legal.

Duane, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said. I'm sorry about what happened to you and I'm sorry you don't have any friends. It's not your fault that your friends abandoned you, it's just the way most folks are these days. People know no loyalty and are too fat & comfortable.

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/567808/5280c0c633/1557503015/a18ddb5dd1/

Dear Friend of Wildlife,

It's rare that we get an opportunity to write VICTORY in a subject line in this field of work. But we just scored a big victory for wildlife in Oregon and I'm excited to share the great news with you.

Joining forces with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, we sued Duane Freilino, organizer of the annual JMK Coyote Hunting Contest in Crane, Harney County, Oregon. Our suit argued that the killing contest and associated betting competition constituted a gambling enterprise, which is illegal and deemed a public nuisance in the state of Oregon, where under state law a court may stop illegal gambling events. Freilino�s killing contest, held annually for eight seasons, required hunters to �buy in� to the contest by paying an entry fee of $100. Top teams won cash prizes totaling more than $10,000 for various kills, including �most kills� and �largest kill.�

In response to the lawsuit, Freilino had filed a counterclaim for $100,000. Arguing the counter-suit was an attempt at intimidation, we filed a motion to dismiss the counter-suit, leading Freilino to drop his meritless claim and settle the lawsuit against him by agreeing never to host another hunting contest in Oregon and to pay $5,252 in attorney fees to the animal groups.
Coyote howling
Most people are shocked to learn that it is legal to kill coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and other wildlife as part of a contest or tournament for prizes and "recreational fun" in most states. They�re even more shocked to learn that hundreds of such contests take place each year in the U.S. killing thousands of wild animals.

As a result of this lawsuit, hundreds of coyotes will be spared from wanton killing in the annual JMK Coyote Hunting Contest - and thousands of Americans now know about this heinous practice because of the national media attention garnerned.

California is our next target and next week we head to San Diego to testify before the CA Fish and Game Commission in support of our petition to ban wildlife killing contests statewide. You can read more about this effort in my Op Ed in the Sacramento Bee "The Case for Banning Wildlife-Killing Contests�.

Together we are making a difference for wildlife.

Thank you.

CamMokieHenryMtTamCarolineKraus Camilla H. Fox

Founder & Executive Director P.S.- I'm excited to share the first of a series of campaign ads we'll be using in our effort to ban wildlife killing contests in California created by Project Coyote communications advisor Gina Farr...

Absolutely disgusting!

Those people should not be able to enjoy a dinner at a restaurant!

Even their ad campaign is a lie.

If hunting coyotes is banned, then the kids DON'T have a choice now, do they?

It's all "Love, Peace, Acceptance and Tolerance" with those liberal idiots... Until it comes to something THEY don't want to tolerate or accept.

Liberals- Our mission, to pass laws that make outlaws out of regular Americans, so the undisciplined minority can RULE!

All based on what emotion is flowing from them that day...

Just call it a hunt and offer no prizes and each hunter bring a covered dish for the buffet after the hunt.

It's a loss no matter how you view it. If you organize anything from now on then they'll call the thought police and say you had intent to conduct an organized hunt. Then they'll argue that any hunting party (like elk camp) is an organized hunt, even claiming the participants call it a "hunting party". Pretty soon, any group gathering involving hunting will be banned in the court of public opinion. Then it'll be solo hunting because someone, probably a 13 year old kid, will get lost and die a tragic death of hypothermia, or worse yet, get eaten by wolves.

It's just another step in the parade of insanity in this country.

That's the way it's headed. Fast.

The liberal vilification of anything to do with hunting or guns of any sort has become there goal. The public that doesn't know better is the target of the campaign.

No kidding huh? They must be living on daddy's trust fund and bored out of their mind because they seem to have unlimited time and resources to phook with real people's lives.
I'd like to get these metro men on the end of a shovel and work the sheit out of them in 104 degree temps for about three weeks and see how much energy they have to dick with us all.

I hope some of these idiots get turned into coyote or cougar poop, and then see how the rest of their crowd feel about their little fuzzy friends.... do any of these people understand they are dealing with wild animals, not stuffed animals?