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Heads up Faster Horses - we might be next!

L

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
1,818
Location
northwestern South Dakota
I'm sure the same folks behind this have been watching other states too.

State to consider regulating coyote hunting tournaments
Friday, March 10, 2006
By Lisa Rathke
The Associated Press

MONTPELIER -- With the urging of a Senate committee, the board that establishes rules and regulations for fish and wildlife will consider whether coyote hunting tournaments should be regulated.

If the board decides at its meeting next week to investigate the hunts, the Fish and Wildlife Department likely would hold a series of public hearings to gather input on the bounty hunts, said Rob Borowske, chairman of the Fish and Wildlife Board.

Then the 14-member board likely would review biological information about coyotes and the social and economic impacts of the hunts before deciding whether new rules are needed. The board would hold public hearings on any potential regulation.

"It's a priority to get moving," said Borowske, "and I think the Senate committee would appreciate us moving forward on this." The Senate Natural Resources Committee has considered the issue.

The board could create rules about the tournaments or decide that no regulations are needed, Borowske said.

The process could take up to a year, he said. The Fish and Wildlife Department has not scheduled hearings.

The organized hunts, which have been highlighted in the media, have generated philosophical and ethical arguments from both supporters of the derbies and opponents.

Organizers say they believe they are protecting the deer population by killing coyotes. Opponents, many of them residents of Addison County where the hunts have taken place, call the tournaments a senseless slaughter. Some fear the coyote derbies give all hunting a bad image.

"It's clear that there's really a significant difference of opinion right now about how these things (hunts) should be handled," Sen. Virginia Lyons, D-Chittenden, chairwoman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said Thursday.

Biologists say coyotes do prey on deer and fawns but don't affect the overall deer population. And they say the tournaments targeting coyotes do nothing to control the coyote population since the animal's reproductive rates increase after a significant number are killed.

Two bills proposed in the Legislature would penalize hunters who organize or participate in such hunts. Lyons said the decision is best left to the Fish and Wildlife Board.

"The whole issue belongs at the board, and we wanted to make sure that that's going to happen," she said.

The second annual Howlin' Hills Coyote Hunt starts today. Organizer Donald Felion of Leicester said he has a petition with at least 5,000 signatures from people around the state who support the hunts. A group called Vermonters for Safe Hunting and Wildlife Diversity, which has been trying to stop the hunts, plans to protest the three-day event in Whiting on Saturday.

"There's a hunt this weekend. Hopefully it will be the last," said Jim Hoverman of Middlebury head of the group.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060310/NEWS02/603100309/1007&theme=
 
Thanks for posting this. I almost missed it, LB, and I don't know how.

If they insist that coyotes do not hurt deer population (?????~and they
didn't mention pheasants) and they increase litters to make up for the ones that are harvested, what difference does it make if contests are held or not?

It's the same old double talk... :mad:

Where is Montpelier? Idaho?

And, if you don't mind saying, what publication did you get this from?

Can you imagine what is going to happen if they get this done?
These guys aren't gonna take this sitting down. The government just keeps on until sometime they are going to push the wrong button.
 
Yup - Vermont. Click on the link at the bottom and you can read the story online.

I've got several topics listed with the Google email alert system and they post everything they find containing key words, in this case the word was coyote.

I've deleted all the alerts I got yesterday, but as soon as I get another one I'll post the url for you if you want the same free service from them.
 
Well I don't have a problem with the contests-but they are proposing a series of puyblic meetings-isn't this a chance to present your case in favour of them-I'm sure a well presented case would do more for your cause than bitter rhetoric and padlocks.You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar-just a thought-let the cutting and pasteing commence.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Well I don't have a problem with the contests-but they are proposing a series of puyblic meetings-isn't this a chance to present your case in favour of them-I'm sure a well presented case would do more for your cause than bitter rhetoric and padlocks.You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar-just a thought-let the cutting and pasteing commence.
Click to expand...

I think you are right NR, but what do you do when they ignore you and everyone else, and go with the wacky enviro ideas?

We here in SD have no recourse with a vote as the head of the wildlife management departments are all appointed and not elected.

I find it very telling when FH says that the coyote population will rebound when there is an adaquet food supply, and whelp bigger litters. If that is the case, the more you shoot and trap, the more will be born to replace those who have been removed. Seems like you'd have to deplete their food supply, to cut their numbers, and a coyote will eat about anything. So good luck with that. So then, shooting and trappping will not make too much of a dent in the numbers.

But I kind of doubt that this really happens, as years ago when the fur prices got high, we had a GOOD trapper who came out and trapped our ranch. We had lots of fox and he got 70, yes not a typo, 70, fox off from ONE set. Three years later he only got 7 fox off the WHOLE ranch. So they did not rebound as fast as he trapped them. But he was, a good trapper.

I think if you could talk common sense solutions and you had people in management who would listen to the land owners it would be great. Unfortunatley, we don't have that here in our state, and we tried to do it your way for years. It didn't work, so some of us are taking a different tack. :wink:

It might not work, but we'll never know if we don't try.

Seems to me we down here in the US had a problem back about 200 years ago and when talk didn't change anything, we took a different tack and ran ol' King George's underlings and minions, back to England. Of course, you folks up north of us, never had that problem so you let him and his folks stay. Good for you. :wink:

And evidently, you don't have a problem with depredations or too manu of any wild animal.

I do think that a hard winter will help us resolve many of these wildlife issues. But it is a hard way to go about it. Mother nature can be a stern task master.
 
Well, JB, Fasterhorses just repeated what she has been told over and over and over by the animal rights people. My repeating it here was meant sarcastically.

I don't happen to believe it either.

And NR, good idea, but they don't listen to us. We are outnumbered
by people who have NO idea about predators. But money talks and they have plenty of that.

And one other little thing, the coyotes harvested in our contest
were a pretty pathetic bunch. They were full of mange. Out of
55 coyotes only 2 were of decent fur quality.
 
Well the first thing a northern cowboy learns is letting a mangy coyote live is a pretty good form of biological control-by shooting the mangy ones you just helped the coyote population. The argument they don't listen is pretty weak-they aren't going to go away so you better keep talking and just find a better way to get your message across. We get losses from predators of course but that is a cost of doing business in the enviroment where we chose to ranch-I don't think anybody with a rational mind would advocate the total eradication of a species.
 
I have shot coyotes in the feed yard that have mange not a pretty site :!: They are past the reproducing stage and can spread there mange onto cattle. To bad the Bunny Lovers :roll: are never around to see how Mother Nature takes care of coyote overpopulations :!:
 
Cowzilla; Are you sure about coyotes spreading mange to cattle? I checked that out years ago and was told it couldn't happen, but to keep an eye on your dogs! Not looking for a scrap.......just more info!
 
I don't think can spread mange either-I usually shoot the mangy ones too but if you really serious about controlling coyotes in a politically correct manner let them walk. I think in this day and age you have to expect something like a yote contest to come under public scrutiny-not saying it's right but that's the way it is.
 
Here's an example of how it's supposed to work. I took this picture from right in front of our house. It's pretty grainy because I used the digital camera/binoculars, but if you look carefully you'll see a big old coyote duking it out with some ravens over a deer that the coyotes took down the night before. The coyote was trying to drag the deer to the bush, but it weighed more than he did.

As far as we're concerned, this coyote will not be shot. He and his bunch leave cattle alone, and we're not too excited to let a new pack in the neighbourhood that won't be as well behaved.

coyotedeerandraven.jpg


I know there are lots here that will disagree with me, but my feeling is that if the balance is working, then leave it alone. Our deer population is coming down now, and it's mostly thanks to these coyotes. Two years ago, I could sit upstairs at the computer and count over a hundred deer at a time crossing this same field, and last week we just had to wait for 15 to cross the road before we could get home. :?
 
I totally agree with you. If you take out a coyote who MIGHT cause a problem, you'll probably get one who WILL cause a problem.

I saw a study where they showed that by killing one of a pair of coyote during whelping season, it makes the surviving one, look for easier prey and once they get a taste for lambs and baby calves, it's pretty hard to change their minds as to what else they should eat.

But, I've never had a problem with coyotes, so it's pretty easy for me to have this attitude.

When the neighbors are having problems with coyotes and want to fly over to get a problem coyote, I as a good neighbor, don't want to say no to them. It's part of being a good neighbor.
 
We have not had a problem with coyotes either. But we have neighbors who have. In W. Montana they came down out of the foothills and they were eating on cows that were calving and calves that were being born. So the state flew the helicoptors and they got the problem coyotes. When we moved there, there were LOTS of coyotes and no deer. As the coyote population decreased the deer increased.

Here there are problems, although we haven't had them. They are around that is for sure. I would never want to get rid of all the coyotes. We won't allow trapping unless the trapper checks his traps every day and the trapper here only checks every third day. We can't abide that, so no trapping.

I don't understand how a 2-day coyote hunt can raise so much adversity.
As a community we decided to hold a calling contest instead of paying the helicopter to come in and shoot them from the air.
 
Calving here started early and on a sour note. When out among the cows a cow was found trying to calve she had had trouble (a foot was back) but the finding was worse then that. The calf had been ate on by coyotes and so had the cow making both be a loss.

In this area they hold a coyote calling contest to raise money for an organization. Several of the local men also call coyotes.
 
Everybody up here hunts yotes too-but I'm sure you can see how a coyote calling contest would raise eyebrows elsewhere-most ranchers are handy enough with a rifle to take care of problem themselves or know somebody who can. I've actually had more losses due to all things -porcupines-you get one of them bumbling through a calving herd in the night you can have a real mess-quilled cows and broken legged calves-they get shot on sight on my place.
 
cowsense said:
Cowzilla; Are you sure about coyotes spreading mange to cattle? I checked that out years ago and was told it couldn't happen, but to keep an eye on your dogs! Not looking for a scrap.......just more info!
Click to expand...
Got this info from local vet few years ago , confermed cattlemen had a couple of calves had mange few miles east of me. They farm close to big marsh area ( lots of coyotes ). However I was not getting info first hand from the cattlemen in question? Perhaps KATO might have info on this as I don't want to rock the boat :-)
 
Faster Horses-- Remember when I told you in the PM about the Sheriff spotting the biggest dark coyote (?) he'd ever saw when flying the brush? Its too bad they wouldn't let Jeff get him when he had a chance!! :(

Mystery animal killing sheep in McCone, Garfield counties
By The Associated Press

BOZEMAN -- Ranchers in McCone and Garfield counties, as well as federal wildlife officials, are hunting a wolf or wolf hybrid that has killed 35 sheep and wounded 70 others since late December.

The attacks started near Circle more than 250 miles from the nearest known wolf territory. Five sheep were killed and 15 wounded, some of which died later.

The next attack happened Jan. 10 and ended with 21 grown ewes dead and 40 injured.

In both cases, agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services looked at tracks and other evidence and determined domestic dogs were responsible. On Jan. 12, four more sheep were killed and six injured, said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Word of the attacks spread, and ranchers began looking for a killer dog.

On Feb. 6, Jeff Skyberg, a private trapper in Circle, got a call from a rancher who said he'd spotted large dog tracks in some fresh snow.

Skyberg, who works for a local predator control district funded by ranchers, got in a small plane and followed the tracks. "When I got to the end of the tracks, it wasn't a dog," he said.

He described what looked like a wolf: a big gray animal with a straight tail. Dog or hybrid tails often curl.

He landed the plane and called state wildlife officials to find out if he could legally kill the animal. FWP officials informed him that only Wildlife Services could legally kill what could be a wolf.

"By the time Wildlife Services got there, we'd lost it," Skyberg said. "It walked off into a sagebrush coulee, and we never could find it. We were out of gas and out of time."

The animal has attacked two more times since then, killing two sheep and wounding 11.

Officials are now calling it a wolf or wolf hybrid, and ranchers and Wildlife Services are on the offensive.

Federal rules adopted in 2005 allow ranchers to kill wolves that are attacking or menacing livestock. When ranchers suffer losses, they can obtain kill permits that are good for 45 days after an attack and can be used only on their land. Four kill permits have been issued.

Wildlife Services agents stationed in Jordan also are hunting the animal, Sime said.

"There is some big canid out there killing sheep, and that's not OK," she said. "We've got to get to the bottom of that."
 
Cowzilla- I did a google search on mange and it seems that cattle & coyote mange are different types and are called host specific so they shouldn't be spread from one species to the other. Coyotes and foxes can spread it to dogs and people have been known to catch this form!
 

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