Young Marylander's ray killing petition reaches 90,000+ signatures

A 16-year old Marylander hopes Gov. Larry Hogan will stop the killing of cownose rays, collecting 94,000 petition signatures to back her up.

Charli Holland, 16, of New Market said she was horrified after she learned about cownose ray tournaments on the Chesapeake Bay. These tournaments are sometimes held in Anne Arundel County, where fishermen get on boats, shoot the rays with arrows, hit them with a bat to stun them and then put them in a bucket to be weighed later.

Some of the rays are kept for food, while others, dead after suffocating outside the water, are dumped back into the Chesapeake Bay. Pregnant rays are not spared, and sometimes are prime hunting targets as the unborn babies can add to a ray's weight and help the fishermen win the competition.

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