ARIZONA ENDING AUCTION FOR BIG GAME TAGS – If you’ve attended the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo in the past several years, you know the auction price of many tags. Many of the sheep tags go for several hundred thousand dollars. While there are some tags that go for lower prices. In 2023, a man bought the Arizona state-wide tag for a record $725,000! Although this money has helped conservation in the past, Arizona is taking a step back to evaluate the pros and cons in these auction hunts.
Auction Tags
Tags auctioned at the expo and other events can be a lot of fun and can bring in a lot of money. The money from these tags are used for advancements in conservation and many other positive improvements. However, the tags also favor the wealthy, which leaves many people out of the game. When many of these auction tags were introduced, they were introduced to create excitement and opportunity for all hunters. As the price has increased over the years, the auction tags have moved to only a select few individuals.
Many of the tags are known as the “governors tag”. These tags allow the individual that purchased that tag to hunt anywhere in the state and all year long. Usually the animals taken with these tags are record book animals. The price being paid warrants a record book animal.
Arizona Ends Auctions
Following the record setting purchase of the state-wide tag last year, Arizona decided it was time to weigh the pros and cons of this practice. Ultimately they took it to a vote, and at a vote of 4 to 1, it was determined that these auctions would come to an end.
“I think we all hold our noses a little bit when we watch these auction tags go to the highest bidder at these banquets,” Backcountry Hunters and Anglers regional policy director Kevin Farron told OL hunting editor Andrew McKean last week. “The solution isn’t to abolish auction tags, but rather to consider alternatives to the auction model, and if there’s an alternative to raise just as much money or more, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody opposed to that.”
Are you a supporter of ending these auction tags? Do you feel like they should continue as they are currently distributed?
