It has elicited national media attention, protesting, hunters from a handful of states, spray-painted graffiti on city property, trespassing arrests, barroom debates and a law proposal in Albany.

It's the crow hunt, and it's making a return to the country fields surrounding Auburn in just a matter of weeks.

Organizers Tommy Lennox, Jon VanNest and Lance Gummerson are in the midst of preparing for the Feb. 11-13 event. They're anticipating this year's turnout to eclipse that of 2004, when 52 teams of four killed 1,067 crows.

"I think we'll do it," said VanNest, a taxidermist. "It's gotten bigger each year."

The three friends started the crow hunt five years ago as a way to "have some fun," as Lennox said, in between the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 with local hunting buddies. After two years, animal rights activists began protesting the hunt in large numbers, a circumstance that Lennox credits for making the event as big as it is.

"I'd really like to thank all the activists that have made it what it is today," he said.

In October, Gummerson sold his Orchard Street bar, Spinouts, which had served as event headquarters over the years. But new co-owner Bruce Adams has said he will continue the tradition, offering up his J & B Bar and Grill location as crow-hunt headquarters.

"At first, it seemed senseless, and I was a little skeptical about the hunt and what I had heard," Adams said. "We talked to them and I discovered that it just wasn't guys hunting crows for no reason."

Adams said the bar has been getting calls from hunters as far away as Kansas and Minnesota inquiring about the hunt. And he admits he "couldn't turn down an opportunity to make some money."

"This is something that Auburn needs. It brings a good amount of business into the area."

Lennox said the hunters stay in Auburn hotels, eat at area restaurants and purchase hunting equipment at local shops. He anticipates that Bass Pro Shops will see a large turnout this year.

The men say they don't make any money off the event, instead giving the proceeds to an area individual in need. Last year, the men handed over $1,000 to Denise Zach Marstall, a Union Springs woman battling a rare form of ovarian cancer.

"Its nice to get a bunch of hunters together and have some fun," VanNest said. "But I enjoy the part about helping people out the most."

Lennox said about 200 of last year's crow corpses went to biologists at Cornell and University of Binghmaton for research.

"Twenty-eight percent of those crows were found to have West Nile virus," he said.

Many of the remaining crows, VanNest said, went to a gun club in Pompey for an annual wild game dinner. For the second consecutive year, the Crow Dogs of Stanley, Ontario County, won the competition last year by bagging 217 crows, good for a $600 prize. In 2003, 32 teams killed 348 crows. Lennox said there will be two divisions this year to give teams with less experience a chance to win.

In 2003, eight animal rights activists were arrested for trespassing on area farms. Last year, someone spray painted "Killers" in red paint on the front doors of Memorial City Hall and "Crow Killers" on the gazebo across the street.

Crow supporter Rita Sarnicola, an Owasco resident and member of Auburn's Crow Committee, is opposed to a crow hunt and said she plans on organizing a group of peaceful protesters if the event is staged.

"Killing wildlife and having a party around it is just insane," Sarnicola said. "If they tie it to Auburn, we will protest. We don't want it attached to the city name."

Although a proposal was shot down in Albany last year, Sarnicola said a new bill will be reintroduced in the state Assembly to ban such hunting contests.

"We won't give up on it," she said.

Lennox said it's an "American right" to hunt, and as long as the law allows, he will continue to organize the hunt. And as long as the hunt proceeds, one can expect to see Auburn's name in print. The event has made national news each of the last two years, and Lennox has said his life has changed because of it.

"I'm really impressed," he said. "You cut trees for 24 years, and no one knows you. Then you shoot a bunch of flying rats out of the sky and you make the front page of newspapers all over the country."

Staff writer Benning W. De La Mater can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or ben.delamater@lee.net