Crow no more.
The Cayuga County Crows Unlimited crow shooting contest, organized for four years by Tom Lennox and his buddies, has been canceled this year.
Lennox said the annual event has required a lot of organizational work, even as the number of crows has dropped in the city of Auburn from an estimated 64,000 to just hundreds because of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's hazing efforts. The number of hunters has dropped as the flocks of black birds have dwindled. Fellow event organizer Bruce Adams, owner of the crow hunt home, J & B Bar in Auburn, also has had health problems in the last year.
"Let me put it this way," Lennox said. "Would you buy 50 gallons of fuel, if you didn't have a truck to put it in?"
The number of crows killed in the hunt had declined to 453 in 2006 compared to 1,061 shot in 2005.
Lennox's greatest sadness is that with the event's cancellation, the money raised from the hunt will no longer be given to a person diagnosed with cancer. Lennox has a soft spot for the fight against cancer because he lost his father to the disease.
The event started out as a private affair between Lennox and some of his hunting buddies. But they advertised the event one year to increase participation.
The results include counter-protests by animal rights advocates, graffiti in 2004 at Memorial City Hall slamming the crow "killers" and Lennox's crowmobile -- a modified 1986 Pontiac Firebird with crow head on its black hood and a hydraulic-run, flappable wings.
Lennox won't rule out the hunt's return to Auburn, or to nearby communities if crows congregate there at the level they flocked to Auburn.
"We sit in palm of God's hand," Lennox said. "Hunting and fishing used to be a necessary at the turn of the century ... Crows do not have any real natural predators, especially when they're in the number of 40,000 to 50,000 ... The only real natural predator is man."
Lennox added that hunting crows was part of maintaining balance between animal populations.
"This thing is eating more than this thing. Man has created an atrocity in the ecosystem," Lennox said.
Rita Sarnicola, a longtime participant in the group Citizens Respectful of Wildlife and an organizer of the animal-rights event countering the crow hunt, said it was a good decision for the 2007 hunt to be called off.
"They're very intelligent," Sarnicola said. "It's just not good for any children to think that creatures deserve disrespect just because of what they are ... They've been here a long time, longer than we have."
Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.
Lennox said the annual event has required a lot of organizational work, even as the number of crows has dropped in the city of Auburn from an estimated 64,000 to just hundreds because of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's hazing efforts. The number of hunters has dropped as the flocks of black birds have dwindled. Fellow event organizer Bruce Adams, owner of the crow hunt home, J & B Bar in Auburn, also has had health problems in the last year.
"Let me put it this way," Lennox said. "Would you buy 50 gallons of fuel, if you didn't have a truck to put it in?"
The number of crows killed in the hunt had declined to 453 in 2006 compared to 1,061 shot in 2005.
Lennox's greatest sadness is that with the event's cancellation, the money raised from the hunt will no longer be given to a person diagnosed with cancer. Lennox has a soft spot for the fight against cancer because he lost his father to the disease.
The event started out as a private affair between Lennox and some of his hunting buddies. But they advertised the event one year to increase participation.
The results include counter-protests by animal rights advocates, graffiti in 2004 at Memorial City Hall slamming the crow "killers" and Lennox's crowmobile -- a modified 1986 Pontiac Firebird with crow head on its black hood and a hydraulic-run, flappable wings.
Lennox won't rule out the hunt's return to Auburn, or to nearby communities if crows congregate there at the level they flocked to Auburn.
"We sit in palm of God's hand," Lennox said. "Hunting and fishing used to be a necessary at the turn of the century ... Crows do not have any real natural predators, especially when they're in the number of 40,000 to 50,000 ... The only real natural predator is man."
Lennox added that hunting crows was part of maintaining balance between animal populations.
"This thing is eating more than this thing. Man has created an atrocity in the ecosystem," Lennox said.
Rita Sarnicola, a longtime participant in the group Citizens Respectful of Wildlife and an organizer of the animal-rights event countering the crow hunt, said it was a good decision for the 2007 hunt to be called off.
"They're very intelligent," Sarnicola said. "It's just not good for any children to think that creatures deserve disrespect just because of what they are ... They've been here a long time, longer than we have."
Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.
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