A week before the opening of the Olympics,
759 Pennsylvanians paid $25 each to participate in a sport that would never be
a part of any international competition.
These Pennsylvanians carried shotguns,
whistles, and electronic calls; most also used dogs to search out their
prey.
The prey was coyotes. A “reward” of $100
was paid for each coyote killed; whoever killed the biggest coyote in each of
the three-day hunt received $250. Most of the coyotes killed weighed 30–40
pounds, about the size of a Brittany Spaniel; the largest weighed 51 pounds.
This hunt was organized by District 9
Pennsylvania Trappers Association, which covers seven counties in the
north-central part of the state. Other hunts are organized by community
organizations and volunteer fire companies in several states. January and February, the months when most organized
hunts take place, is when the coyotes breed; gestation period is about two
months.
Decades ago,
hunters killed off the wolf population. Ever resourceful, coyotes filled the
void. In Pennsylvania, as in most states that have coyotes, every day is open
season. Last year, more than 40,000 coyotes were killed in Pennsylvania, about
half of all coyotes killed throughout the country. However, eliminating coyotes
is impossible. When threatened by predators, including humans, coyotes will
breed and overproduce. When not threatened, they maintain the size of their
packs.
In
literature, the coyote is the trickster, not unlike Br’er Rabbit who could
out-think (and scam) any other animal. Among Native Americans in the southwest,
the coyote was revered as “God’s Dog.”
Those who
trap rather than shoot coyotes use leg-hold traps and neck snares, which causes
severe injuries, pain, and
suffering,” according to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
Another problem with traps is they often capture domestic animals. But there is
even a greater problem than the traps.
“Because
coyotes are nocturnal animals, and look like dogs at night, people hunting
coyotes will kill domestic pets,” says Sarah Speed of the HSUS. She says there
are “thousands of cases” of what is dismissed as “mistaken identity.”
Coyotes pose no threat to humans, and will
avoid human contact when possible. Contrary
to hunter claims, coyotes usually avoid killing deer and elk, except in extreme
winter when food is scarce. To the coyotes, size does matter, and scoring
dinner of mice and berries is far easier than taking down an eight-point buck.
Those who kill coyotes claim coyotes, one
of the most intelligent and resourceful of all animals, kill fawns, causing
severe stress to the deer families. So, like the true humanitarians they are,
these citizens of a state founded by a man opposed to killing, spin the fiction
they are not only preventing an overpopulation of coyotes, but are also saving
fawns, cottontails, mice and, apparently, fruits and berries, coyote favorites
in the summer, from the coyote population. The Pennsylvania Game Commission
says there is no evidence coyotes have any significant impact upon the deer
population.
Farmers say they don’t like coyotes
because they kill hens, which produce eggs and then are slaughtered. Coyotes
deprive not only Colonel Sanders from income but also sports fans from the
thrill of slobbering barbeque sauce over their hands and mouths during “Wing
Nite Mondays.”
Most hunters who kill deer say they do so
to provide their families with meat; they say the skin provides for warmth.
They don’t say why they have a testosterone-fueled need to stuff a buck’s head,
complete with antlers, and display it like a trophy. Nevertheless, coyotes have
no meat value. Although their fur can yield a maximum of $40 a pelt, women
aren’t salivating for a Valentine’s Day gift of a coyote stole.
Hunters whose intelligence and ability to survive in the woods aren’t as
good as a coyote’s can still kill them. Several game farms offer special hunts.
For $399 a day, pretend-hunters can sign up with Kansas Predator Hunts for
“guided and all-inclusive” hunts that includes lodging, food, and a guide to do
everything except to take the actual shot.
Many hunters
refuse to kill coyotes. Mark Giesen of Northumberland, Pa., a hunter for 40
years, refuses to hunt coyotes or anything that does not have meat value. He
says he believes incentivized killing, where people are paid to kill
animals, “whether it’s coyotes or pigeons, is wrong and very
unsportsmanlike.”
The
Pennsylvania House of Representatives, composed of part-timers who earn a
minimum of $82,026 a year plus as much as $159 a day when they are actually in
Harrisburg, passed a bill, 111-78 in December, which would pay a $25 bounty for
every coyote killed. The Senate has not yet voted on the legislation. Because
there is open season on coyotes, more than 40,000 a year are killed, and
numerous wildlife officers are on record as saying that bounties are not
effective in controlling the coyote population, the bill appears to be little
more than a special welfare program to benefit hunters and trappers. The cost
to the state, which is already in financial distress, will be up to $700,000 a
year for the bounties, plus additional administrative costs to process a
program that adds another layer of bureaucracy and still not solve a problem
that doesn’t exist.
Camilla Fox
of Project Coyote told The Wildlife News
that “Killing coyotes and wolves for fun and prizes is ethically repugnant,
morally bankrupt, and ecologically indefensible. Such contests demean the
immense ecological and economic value of predators, perpetuating a culture of
violence and sending a message to children that life has little value.”
For whatever reason people say they kill
coyotes, it has nothing to do with sport or ecological necessity, and
everything to do with the sheer joy of killing.
[Dr. Brasch has been an award-winning
journalist for four decades. His latest book is Fracking Pennsylvania, an in-depth investigation into the effects of
the shale gas industry upon economics, health, and environment.]
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