Coyote Killing Contest Prompt Howls

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070111/D8MIVDMO0.html

Coyote Killing Contest Prompt Howls

By MATTHEW BROWN

BAKER, Mont. (AP) - The barren buttes surrounding this small ranching town will offer scant places for coyotes to hide this weekend as hunters converge for a "calling" contest to see who can shoot the most coyotes.

Part predator control, part economic development ploy, the annual event began five years ago in a bid to pique outside interest in Baker via a $6,000 purse funded by entrance fees, local businesses and the Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

While organizers see success in the event's growth, the increasing popularity of such contests is prompting a backlash from animal rights groups and even some hunters, who contend the events trivialize the sport by turning it into a cash-fueled spectacle.

For the coyote, the hunts reflect the lowly place the animal still holds across the American West. Even as a debate rages between state and federal officials over whether its high profile cousin, the gray wolf, should be removed from the endangered species list, the coyote is stuck with the label "varmint", to be killed on sight.

Most states have few if any restrictions on killing the animal, said Stephen Price, president of coyoteclub.org, which connects hunters with ranchers hoping to eliminate the animals from their land.

In Baker, a town of about 1,700 tucked against the North Dakota border, supporters of this weekend's contest say it will deliver a much-needed jolt to the area's economy, drawing some 180 participants from as far away as Chicago and Seattle. They also say fewer coyotes means fewer livestock killings.

"I don't know why God put them on this Earth," said Jerrid Geving, a hunter who organizes the Baker event. "If He put them on this world to give us sport for hunting, maybe. But I'll tell you what, they do a lot of damage to livestock."

Despite widespread support for that sentiment, not everyone agrees contest hunts are the answer.

Randy Tunby, a sheep rancher in nearby Plevna, Mont., has turned down requests from contest participants to hunt on his land. The results of such hunts, he said, are spotty at best.


"I'm not saying it's not a good thing to do; we ourselves call coyotes. But if you have problems with coyotes getting into your livestock, it's going to be haphazard if people coming into the contest get those," Tunby said.

Tunby prefers the services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's predator control program. According to USDA records, its Wildlife Services division shoots, poisons, traps or otherwise destroys about 80,000 coyotes a year on private and public lands nationwide.

John Shivik, a research biologist with the services' National Wildlife Research Center, said any effort to reduce livestock damage must specifically target those animals causing problems. Contest hunts might miss the worst offenders, he said.

Coyotes caused an estimated $47 million in damage to the cattle industry in 2005, according to the USDA. Sheep losses topped $10 million in 2004.

Groups including the Humane Society of the United States and Predator Defense say neither private hunts nor public agency killings offer a real solution because of the coyote's ability to rapidly reproduce.

"You kill some coyotes and six months later it's as if you didn't kill any at all. What are they accomplishing other than just being barbaric?" asked Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense.

In Montana, coyotes can be hunted 24 hours a day, 12 months a year, with no limits. That provides out-of-state hunters with ample "trigger time" not available in their home states, said Geving, who already has bagged six coyotes this winter around Baker.

Price and others describe a booming interest in coyote hunting, with an estimated 500 "calling contests" nationwide and more added every year. They get their name because hunters howl and make distress calls to mimic prey, attracting coyotes. Many, Price said, are conducted on the sly - invitation-only events meant to avoid the ire of animal rights groups.

Baker promotes its event with fliers and on the Internet. Even protesters are welcome, said Karol Zachmann, president of the Baker chamber of commerce.

"Actually, that does good for us if they come and meet us and find out we're not all that bad," she said.

To some hunters, turning the challenge of coyote hunting into a contest with large sums of money at stake defies long-standing traditions of the sport. Jim Posewitz, a leading voice in the field of hunters' ethics, says that to purists, the contests violate the basic tenet of "fair chase" - the notion that hunting is a private struggle between predator and prey.

"I don't think hunting is a contest between human beings," said Posewitz, a biologist who spent 32 years with the Montana wildlife agency before founding the Orion Hunters Institute. "We like to think it's a more meaningful relationship that we have with wildlife than simply viewing them as a competition between people."

Two differant views on hunting here, one being the pure solitary hunt for game, and the organized elimination of vermin, quite similar to the organized prarie dog shoots. Prarie dogs are cute little buggers, but also incredibly destructive, and very dangerous to livestock.
Coyotes are one of the few animals to spread with the advent of man, and are vermin. Kinda neat vermin, IMHO, but still varmints.

Down here in North Florida, the coyotes cause a lot of damage to deer and livestock. I kill them with the same zeal I hunt feral hogs. At least you can eat the hogs. Coyotes are useless dead or alive.

I paid for two semesters of college shooting coyotes. Educational and entertaining.

But I choose not to hunt or shoot varmints like coyotes or bobcats. That's my choice. If you enjoy it then more power to you. And it is true that they can be destructive to livestock and other game.

I have hunted for many years but this so called "hunt" makes me sick . Wildlife management is important but to make this "hunt" a contest for money is obscene . IMO there is no speceis of wildlife that is "useless vermin" wich needs to be exterminated . Every species has a niche to fill in the eco system . I believe there was a time that the Bald Eagle was considered useless vermin before it became the symbol of our country .

Ease up there, Handyman....

Rats are a species of wildlife, as are Mosquitos, Flys, Africanized Bees; to name but a few.

Casting aspersions toward other board members who happen to have a different point of view by likening them to "Vermin" is NOT "The High Road".

If I won't eat it, I wont shoot it. Coyotes IMO are very helpful, I used to live in the west and I found them very beneficial...regardless, if its not being eatin, I dont like the idea.

Not all that surprising, people are uncomfortable with cute furry animals being shot. You should hear some of the comments I hear from people who saw their neighbor hang a deer up in their yard.

Anyone who believes that any speceis of wildlife is useless vermin that should be exterminated is , IMO , useless vermin themselves

Send me your snail mail address, and I'll send you all the ticks, chiggers, rats and mice on my 185 acres.:D

There is nothing cute about a coyote. They are usually mangy and stink . I see no probem with killing varmits to control them and getting a cash prize. This is no different and is actually cheaper and makes more sense than animal sensitive persons in towns etc. paying outlandish prices for "progessional shooters" to get rid of varmit or other wildlife that needs to go. Some people just do not like to see non professional everyday people hunting. That is what it boils down to. It is the same mentality that only professional cops payed by the STATE should own firearms. It is just anal people who want to control other people. Simple.

I was deer hunting out west a few years ago and I was asked by the rancher on whose land I was hunting NOT to shoot coyotes. There were LOTS of jackrabbits that year and he said that the coyotes were the only way to keep 'em in check. This was on a cattle operation, though. I wonder how a sheep or goat rancher would feel. Something to consider.
Also, I really find the idea of hunting for prizes in a competition a little distasteful. Just my feelings.

in Nevada, the rabbits would overcome the ecosystem if the coyotes didn't do their job. I lived north of Reno for many years and worked in developing subdivisions of five acre homesites. We did much trenching for water, sewer, power and phone. One summer we had a Coyote bitch come over to the job with two pups every afternoon to watch the trencher crawl across the desert. Nearly everyone on the job had a rifle in the back window of their pickup, yet nobody ever made a move to shoot the coyotes as they were amusing, well behaved and respectful, leaving every afternoon as we shut down for the day. On the other hand, most of the folks, myself included would shoot feral dogs anytime we encountered them as they are dangerous to livestock as well as coyotes and humans. Domestic large dogs gone wild are the fault of the owners who allow them to roam as some of them go out at night and kill livestock just for fun and come back to home and hearth before sunrise. Many of these killings get blamed on coyotes. I don't say that shooting coyotes is wrong, just that it depends on where they are and how they fit into the general scheme of things.

In my book, there are two things that need shooting on sight, an Al Queda terrorist, and a coyote. I have talked to ranchers about the damage they do, and attended seminars by AZ Game & Fish officials about coyote predation on deer, antelope, elk and turkey, and found numerous dead cows that I suspect got killed by coyotes.

The only thing I have against organized contests, is that it leads to cheating. Most of the contests are now geared towards awarding raffle tickets for coyotes checked in, and drawing prizes, instead of just giving the biggest prize to the team who brings in the most coyotes. Most of the scam artists get caught out, there are people that know more about dead coyotes that you can ever dream about. Me and a buddy hunted in a contest near Seligman in AZ about 15 years ago, and we got so lost I will never be able to find this place again if I tried. Miles and miles of open grassland North West of Williams, with the occasional water hole here and there, but man, did we call coyotes. I called 12 on one stand, we killed 3, and killed 6 total that day. We were lucky we found a gate that led us to a tar road, it was way before I owned a GPS. When we checked them in, the AZ Game & Fish official looked at the coyotes and asked us "Where did you shoot this dog? It's 9 years old, it is the oldest coyote I have ever seen!" One of the others was 7 years old. We found the old age home for coyotes.:D

I see no harm here as long as the coyots arent being hunt to local extension. I sont know about the population and I didnt read the entire artical (i dont like long articales).

Im sure there are some wildlife guys there tags on things.

There is nothing cute about a coyote. They are usually mangy and stink .
Of course you probably have experience with them. If you live in the city you probably don't get much exposure to them and you think of people killing this for a contest.
http://www.coyoterescue.org/photos/Cherroke_P6111676.jpg

In my area, when the coyotes are not eating the jackrabbits they're attacking the sheep herds.

While I would generally not go out of my way to kill coyotes, if the opportunity presents itself,,,

Actually, I would go out of the way to kill a coyote if it is getting brave and hanging out anywhere near my small livestock.

BTW, just from experience, a coyote can and will kill a downed cow, it will also go after an orphaned or newborn calf.

I shoot Varmints to gain access to farmland I could not otherwise hunt. Mostly Coyotes, but I would shoot p'dawgs if a rancher would then let me hunt his land. This is a function of the Coyotes interfering with the farmers dairy herds and calving pens. I don't shoot them on public land yet, as I have not seen them harrassing a deer, if I do I will shoot. There is a fine line between shooting for killings sake and shooting for purpose, I try my best to be ethical about culling a population of wild life.
There is a purpose, for all things, as there is a time, for all things under heaven.

I disagree with the agrandizment of this particular event, it messes up the ehtics I previously mentioned. I'm not a big fan of a nearby Gopher count either. Once a year a town in So. MN has a thing where they pay you to shoot all the gophers you can. It also somehow messes with the ethics again.
Just rambling here don't mind me.

Killing them doesn't make sense, since the population will recover anyway? Can someone tell that nimrod that NOT killing them will make the population explode and create a bigger problem?

Besides, it's not like these bunny huggers will fork over $47 million of their money to the cattle folks so the latter can recoup their losses. They need to put their money where their mouth is IMO and quit their invasion of small towns to impose their Bugs Bunny fantasies on the locals.

I don't hunt. I just have issues with "enlightened" folks who feel that everyone should think like they do.

I don't like the idea of the hunts, because I like dogs too much and coyotes are canines.

but... I would kill one if it was in my yard, because I have two little dogs. On two occasions, I've went outside to find my two ankle biters barking at the edge of our backyard and the field behind it. Both times a large coyote was standing at the edge of the yard, about 3 feet away, just smelling them and looking very curious.

The first time, I had my shotgun, but it ran as soon as I opened the door. I didn't have my shotgun with me the last time, just a Mag-Lite. I yelled and it ran off.

It easily could have killed both of them either time. Now I put them in a pin at night, just to be safe.

One summer we had a Coyote bitch come over to the job with two pups every afternoon to watch the trencher crawl across the desert. Nearly everyone on the job had a rifle in the back window of their pickup, yet nobody ever made a move to shoot the coyotes as they were amusing, well behaved and respectful, leaving every afternoon as we shut down for the day.

A Yote that is not afraid of humans in populated subdivisions is the first Yote I would hunt for.

KILL THE YOTE'S
Save the Bunny's, Save the Turkey, Save the Pheasants, Save Bambi That way they can all grow up and multiply so I can kill them!

Populated subdivisions??? I don't know how much you are familair with the desert north and east of Reno Nevada, but a subdivion there is a few thousand acres with probably less than two hundred humans. The rabbits, kangaroo rats, mice, and other assorted small critters would spread disease and destruction without the coyotes. Or do you prefer to spray the area with poisons?

I porpbably would not kill a coyote if I had a chance, probably because they look too much like dogs. However, I would never interfere with anyone's right to shoot the critters.

Quote:
One summer we had a Coyote bitch come over to the job with two pups every afternoon to watch the trencher crawl across the desert. Nearly everyone on the job had a rifle in the back window of their pickup, yet nobody ever made a move to shoot the coyotes as they were amusing, well behaved and respectful, leaving every afternoon as we shut down for the day.

A Yote that is not afraid of humans in populated subdivisions is the first Yote I would hunt for.

Populated subdivisions??? I don't know how much you are familair with the desert north and east of Reno Nevada, but a subdivion there is a few thousand acres with probably less than two hundred humans.

I'm sorry let me write that statement different.

A Yote that is not afraid of humans in "NON-POPULATED" subdivisions is the first Yote I would hunt for.

I don't really like hunting them either. But I'm getting $30.00 per pair of ears up in Dagget County. I've got a dozen ears I'm turning in tomorrow.
If I find a pup, I don't think I'd kill it. I'd feed it and name it Cha-ching. :evil:

Getting paid for ears!!!!!! :eek: It's cool that you can get paid for sort-of a hobby though.

If I find a pup, I don't think I'd kill it. I'd feed it and name it Cha-ching.

Get two, a male and a female, and name them Compound and Interest. :p

While I don't hunt any more, and never did hunt purely for sport...and don't cotton to killing just for the sake of killing...and while Coyotes are intelligent,
interesting, highly adaptable, often entertaining...from a distance...and even have an odd etheric beauty in thier own way...they are destructive and can become a real menace if allowed to proliferate unchecked in populated areas. They need to be thinned out. Not only to keep their numbers at a reasonable, manageable level...but to instill in the critters a deep fear of all things human so they'll know to keep their distance so that Coyote and people both win.

I like Coyotes and other wild predators...but I do NOT want'em in my back yard. If I want to go Yote watchin', I'd much prefer to have to hike in deep in order to spot a pack than wake up to a pair on my doorstep.

I grew up in Baker, spent 16 years of my life there before I moved away. It is still home to me...anyone who suggests that the people in that town many of whom are my flesh and blood are vermin and need to be wiped off the earth, can stick it where the sun don't shine.:fire:

The coyote calling contest brings a lot of people from out of town into Baker and it helps the town, these people who come from out of town stay a couple days, eat at Saks, Thee Garage or the Corner and stay in the hotels. Small communities like this are the backbone of our society and anything that can be done to help them develop economically is a good thing.

Coyote's are a pest. They are coming back in droves and something needs to be done to control them. This contest serves many purposes and greatly helps Baker.


P.S. Go Spartans

Eat American lamb; 4 million coyotes can't be wrong. :evil:

The main predator( in the wild ) of Coyote is Wolf, I don't think Mt Lions or Bear hunt Coyote.

The Coyotes that almost caused me to crash my motorcycle in San Francisco

Smelled really bad, a combination of Skunk, garbage and death and they were big and well fed.

Coyotes in suburbia are more interested in garbage and dog food left out side then rats.

Even if the small town in question hunted down every last Coyote in their whole State, there would be more in a week or two.

Coyote have adapted to the urban environment and we are it's only predator...

I used to think they were cute too, until I followed one in San Francisco a few blocks ...they stink of death, I felt a primordial urge to shoot it....

I love dogs, they really are cute and are companions to humans, Coyotes are the enemy of dogs and children...I've been all over Northern NV , everyone I have met (Burningman hippies excepted) will shoot one given half a chance.

For me, I feel too much of a kinship with the things to want to shoot them. But to each his own. Just don't be shocked if one of them plays a trick on you:)

I get a little bent out of shape over certain kinds of varmint shooting. IMO, hunting/killing should be limited to

1) Animals you're going to eat

2) Animals that are trying to hurt you

3) Animals that cause property damage, including damage to crops, livestock and/or pets

It's the last that's a bit contentious for me. Because gophers, for instance, can damage a pasture and result in cows with broken legs, some folks rationalize that they are doing some kind of good by driving to a field a hundred miles from nowhere and wiping out the local ground hog population. This, to me, is simple killing for killing's sake and is not exactly a noble undertaking. Helping out a rancher -- and enjoying yourself in the process -- by spending an afternoon in a hayfield with a varmint gun is one thing. Taking a thousand rounds to a prairie in Nowhere, North Dakota and painting the town red for the sheer "joy" of killing is quite another, IMO. YMMV, I guess.

My sister lives and works in Providence, RI, and she says that she has seen coyotes in the parking lots during the day.

Lived Southwest of San Marcos, Texas until 2 yrs. ago. Was in an addition with 5 acre lots about 2 miles from town. We could hear coyotes at night all the time but in about 2001 coyotes started coming through in 2's and 3's. There were a number of small children that couldn't play out anymore due to fear of the coyotes and small animals went missing. There were a few of them killed (I got one myself during broad daylight). I consider them a real pest and they play havock all over the Texas Hill Country.
I've shot a few racoons that were real pest also. Don't see anything wrong with killing pest as long as they're not human.

Quote:

>they stink of death, I felt a primordial urge to shoot it.<
***********

There's a reason for that. Coyotes, wolves, foxes, and dogs wallow in stinky things...sometimes the remnants of their latest scavenged carrion...in order to mask their natural scent. Ever noticed your dog rolling around on its back, woofin' and growlin' and generally acting strange? Ever wondered why dogs will roll around in a rotting compost pile or even worse things? Scent masking. It's a throwback to the feral side of their nature. Wolf behavior. The pack will do it before the hunt to prevent early detection.

"I don't know why God put them on this Earth," said Jerrid Geving, a hunter who organizes the Baker event. "If He put them on this world to give us sport for hunting, maybe. But I'll tell you what, they do a lot of damage to livestock."



Moron.:banghead:

I have no problem destroying coyotes that encroach, I have no problem with this contest. I do however have a problem with the fact that the halfwit that made the above statement has a vote that counts as much as mine:fire:

I'm mostly with Tuner on this. I don't get to hunt nearly so much as I formerly did, as the cumulative effects of my injuries from a motorcycle crash+the wear and tear of the thirty-odd years of industrial work since+advancing arthritis make getting around in the field problematic.

I guess that even when it was a major passion, my interest was mostly pragmatic in that recreation had little to do with it. Either I wanted/needed to eat it, or it was eating something I do. In my family, we were taught that only a brute kills for amusement.

I have to admit that I have a good deal of trouble understanding the 'Disney-esque' anthropomorphism a lot of folks apply to selected wild animals, especially when it comes to the coyote. I wonder at times if many of the 'Noble Predator' set have ever actually observed what a pack of coyotes leaves in its wake when it goes after a flock of sheep at lambing time, or domestic poultry anytime. I have, and they do not limit their kill to what they need to survive. They will kill everything that they can wrestle down and leave the vast majority of it where it fell.

I also wonder how long the dog lovers' tolerance would hold true after they'd seen coyotes run their pet to exhaustion in relays, then kill it-just for the 'sport' of it.

While I have some problems with the way these folks have chosen to go about it, I can sympathize with the underlying motivations. When I was a kid back in Missouri the $15/pair bounty on coyote ears was a pretty effective incentive, and bought most of my school clothes in more than one year. The fact that many of the neighbors welcomed me to hunt food beasties on their land in exchange for doing so was another.

I had one of the greatest weekends of my life 30 years ago. Two friends and myself had the ok from the owner of a 30,000 acre cattle ranch in South Texas. Not the biggest..but not the smallest spread either!:O)

We arrived late in the morning, checked in at the foreman's house and headed out. After we pitched, ate and loaded up it was dark..we put our miner's lights on and spread out with 12 gauge Remingtons.

It was cool with a dense fog. I'd never experienced anything quite like this hunt. I was new to it but got the knack after a while. Lights out, listening to Burnham Brothers call, switching on the head light and slowly lowering your head til all you see are the eyes! Dang..it was great.

Next day one of my friends put a mangy, sick coyote down as he leaned on a fence post with an open sight 30-06 at 300 yards.

Also hunted hogs. Nothing as exciting as hearing one coming down the path with brush so thick jumping to the side is out of the question. Bum leg..I couldn't run..so It was a thrill! Dumb? Maybe..but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Well I'm no Biologist but I would say the ranchers got what they deserved when the poisoned all of the large predators like the wolf to the point of extinction .

I would bet that the Wolf helped keep the coyote population in check and a healthy wolf for the most part would hunt animals like deer or elk for food rather than sheep or newborn calves .

Coyotes are much smaller "harder to find" and more adaptable than the wolves , thats why their population explosion led them to populated areas .

I doubt we would have seen wolves in suburbia as we do coyotes if they had just stuck to killing the problem wolves rather than exterminating them with poisons .

People just didn't and still don't understand that nature will make it's own "adjustments" to the animal population if you wipe out one another "perhaps more destructive in the long run" will take it's place .

How many people have been killed in car/deer crashes over the years ? Do you think that an equal number would have been killed by wolves if they still existed all over the Nation as they did when white men came here ? Wolves and even Cougars would have kept the deer population in check and for the most part left humans alone as long as some sort of hunting of them was allowed to sustain their fear of humans .

We have seen both extremes and neither is good , kill all the wolves and the coyotes become a problem , stop killing Cougars " as California has" and they become a problem rather than remaining a solitude animal afraid of people they now have seen them enough to consider them game as a child is far easier to catch then a deer .

I'm no tree hugging fool but killing isn't always the answer at least not when it becomes wholesale slaughter of a species and quite frankly predation is part of the game if you want to make a living raising livestock . Deal with it and kill only the problem animals not an entire species just so it doesn't bother you .

you might not be a biologist but you could fool me! you decribed the situation pretty darn accurately.

i shoot the coyotes and some coydogs that try to eat my chickens but mostly i use a lab husky mix and a hound mix. the husky hunts the yotes. is pretty good at it. strangly enough the jusky is not chicken safe herself. she won't go out of her way to get one but when one gets too close she can't fight her hunting instinct unless i weatch her close and verbally admonish her.
i also have to accpt responsiblity for keeping "minnie mouse" confined. if she gets into someone elses livestock i know shes fair game.just like the coyotes.people used to call me a liar about the yotes here until a few got hit and positively identified by animal control. and we have darn few turkey left due to em

Taking a thousand rounds to a prairie in Nowhere, North Dakota and painting the town red for the sheer "joy" of killing is quite another, IMO.
So you think there are no ranchers and livestock to protect in "Nowhere" ????

:confused: :fire:

Didn't read the whole post, didja? Or maybe you're just looking for someone to fight with...

If you read and understand the whole thing, friend, then I'll debate it with you, but I'm not interested in playing games with strawmen. :)

No biggie to me honestly if they are being overrun by the little buggers then they need to be thinned out. .300 weatherby works very well on coyotes.:)

Out here where I live in Silver Springs Nv the coyotes like to eat small dogs and they love to eat cats. I'll blast any I find hanging around my property.

Jeff wrote:

>Out here where I live in Silver Springs Nv the coyotes like to eat small dogs and they love to eat cats. I'll blast any I find hanging around my property.<
*************

Have heard reports...don't know if it's based on fact and observation...that females in estrus will slip into an area inhabited by dogs and "Spread the Word" for all to hear in order to lure male dogs across the line of departure...where the pack will rip'em apart and have'em for dinner.

Given that the critters are highly intelligent, I can believe it.

Like to watch'em way out in the boonies...but I ferdamsure don't want'em within a mile of the home place.

'round here, ya don't have to justify killing coyotes or prairie dogs.

I've killed untold numbers of prairie dogs. And never made a dent in their population.

Coyotes are targets of opportunity for me. But friends of mine who call them in have told me that nothing blurs the lines between predator and prey like callin' dogs.

I see it as sport. I guess I'll never make a good Buddhist.

c'est la friggin' vie.

Thanks! I have wondered why the various dogs that have been my companion
did that...find something gross and smelly and roll around in it...

I do not feel bad for yotes at all, but last spring was really wet & produced a bumper crop of everything and I ran over a Kit Fox, it was really cute and I felt terrible.

After that I no longer drive 90 to 110 mph when alone in the desert...

"Raised by coyotes on the windswept plains of Northeast Colorado, I only recently started using dining untensils. But I've been posting on Gunbroker for years. "


Sorta biting the hand that feeds ya, eh Colonel....!!

Shoot them. After you get the population down to about 25% of what they are now, then we can discuss making a season for them.

It is game management, nothing more. Bring the wolf back if you want true balance and factor in your losses to your livestock. I don't particularly endorse the "contest" aspect of it, where, unlike fish, you don't release them after you plug them with a bullet.

Me, personally, am all for shooting coyotes. My BIL skins them and takes the furs to a big fur trade every year somwhere in SE Oregon/Northern Nevada and supplements his income with the hides. Not a bad way to bring some income into a hobby. Dropping them in the field is not the end of it for him. They are not just left to rot away and be consumed by their living relatives.

I can empathise with the "don't shoot it if you don't eat it" aspect. But again, it's a management plan. If they become endangered from overhunting and genocide (read wolf), they will be regulated accordingly. Their success has put them on the open hunting list where they are, and hunting hasn't decimated their populations, so just let it go is my stance.

Sure their cute and fuzzy looking which is what the animal rights groups would have you think. Try telling that to your fluffy little cat. I've seen them in Sunriver, Oregon area where they were just running down one of the bike paths like two neighbor dogs that escaped the confines of the yard. Sure, capping them in a developed area is verboten for peoples' safety. But those same people advocating not shooting them are left wondering where that prized persian cat of theirs went too. You see the "missing pet" signs at the grocery store free ad boards all the time. Rarely do these metropolitan-ites connect the dots. Oh honey, look at that cute furry dog outside, he wants to play with our barking cat (slang for small dogs). Umm, no honey, he wants to eat him, call him back inside before it's too late.

Oh. I thought this thread would be about a contest by coyotes to see which could kill more chickens. They had a contest like that in my chickenhouse a few years ago... I don't know who won, but they got half the chickens.

I would bet that the Wolf helped keep the coyote population in check

Yeah, the wolves dig 'em out of their dens.

I would say the ranchers got what they deserved when the poisoned all of the large predators like the wolf to the point of extinction .

Actually, as usual it was the taxpayers who did the damage by paying for bounty programs, government hunters, and other brilliant central planning. Just like today's taxpayers pay for the destruction of the rain forest through "foreign aid", the overgrazing of the Sahel, the chaining of trees in American west by the BLM...

There's no crime those vicious taxpayers won't subsidize.