Activists outraged at coyote shoot

Activists throughout Maine expressed outrage at a decision to hold a coyote-killing competition in eastern Maine, despite protests from anti-cruelty groups and a request by Gov. John Baldacci to forgo the event.

"We think all people should have the right to say how wildlife is managed in Maine," said Linn Pulis of Hallowell, a member of several humane organizations. "We have been excluded."

Twenty-three teams turned out as the two-day event got under way in East Machias amid unseasonably warm temperatures, said Mike Look, an organizer of the hunting derby and member of the Washington County Fish and Wildlife Conservation Club.

Look said he sees little difference between the Maine event and normal hunting of coyotes, which are viewed as a major cause of a deer population decline Down East.

"It's a huge sport nationwide," Look said. "It's a chip off the iceberg of what happens every day."

Opponents say the event does nothing to manage the coyote population and reopens old wounds from a recent bear-hunting referendum.

Event organizers offered prizes for the most coyotes killed in different categories, such as calling, baiting and hunting with dogs. Look said he would be surprised if hunters killed as many as a dozen animals.

Days before the event, the Humane Society of the United States sent a letter protesting the event to Gov. John Baldacci, asking him to use his influence to call off the event.

"We think that any derby that involves wanton killing of animals is uncalled-for," Hillary Twining, the humane society's New England coordinator, said Friday from the group's office in Vermont. She said the derby is "not sound wildlife management" and "has no place in the Maine hunting tradition."

At the governor's request, Deputy Commissioner Paul Jacques of the state Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department asked the sporting group not to go ahead with its derby, saying it's not an effective way to control the coyote population. He offered state biologists' assistance in rebuilding the region's deer herd.

Organizers decided to go ahead anyway, noting that some participants were coming long distances and it was too late to tell them the event was canceled.

Pulis said she hopes the hunting group's defiance will encourage lawmakers to ban the practice.

Activists said they were concerned the derby would renew antagonism between hunting and nonhunting groups barely two months after a statewide referendum to decide whether to ban baiting, hounding and trapping of bears. Maine voters rejected the proposed ban.

In late 2003, Maine's coyote snaring program was suspended after appeals to officials and emotional testimony to the Legislature.

Look said the derby is to make up in a small part for the snaring program, in which hundreds of coyotes were taken in Washington County. The former teacher said he founded the sponsoring fish and wildlife club specifically to rebuild Washington County's deer population, which has crashed since the 1970s.

"Our deer population is zero to two per square mile," Look said. "If we had a normal deer population, this wouldn't be happening."

I think shooting coyotes is definitely sporting - and fun with a purpose. When my late grandfather was a sprout (in the 1920's in DeLeon, Texas), coyotes were considered animated practice targets.

A young boy was thought a very poor shot indeed, if he could not hit a bully taw marble from 80 yards (open sights) with a .22 cal. Coyotes provided a way for the boys to hone their marksmanship - as was also true of rats and ground squirrels.

Is it any wonder that his generation of men and boys from the middle of the continent often became the lethally skilled snipers of WWII in the islands of the Pacific, and the cities and countryside villages of Europe?

Though stricken with polio in his childhood, even at 75, "old granddad" could still hold a 5" diameter pattern of 8 shots from 100 yards - open sights with his eyeglasses on..

MY favorite coyote expedition - a few years ago while deer hunting in the Oregon Coast Range mountains, I spied a mangy little coyote traipsing down a logging road about 180 yards distant, and moving away. I had 2 rifles with me, so I popped off 3 shots from my semiauto .22 cal. (open sights) at the dirt about 10 and 5 yards in front of him, to stop/redirect him. He stopped, turned around, took a quick dump, and then presented me with a perfect broadside target.

I set aside the .22, picked up my .30-.30, loaded with 165gr. Nosler partitions, slid the bolt into place, and took a quick peep through the old Weaver brass duplex scope before squeezing the shot off.

Placement was so completely perfect, the Nosler virtually gutted the pest for me, spraying his innards evenly over a wild hazelnut shrub behind him. All I had to do was cuff and cape the hide. He never felt a thing after the initial THUMP!

In 13 years of hunting, I've taken down 9 deer (1 mule, 8 blacktail) - all on a single shots - 8 no further away than 60 yards, 1 from 150. All were dead and gone within less than 3 minutes of getting hit. I have taken countless rabbits, coyotes, and other small game, as well as shotgunning game birds with similar outcome. Every hunter worth their salt wants such results. We are part of a normal chain in nature, and have respect for our roles.

My point - and I do have one - no wild animal ever met a less cruel fate in the desert or forest than at the mercy of my bullet - or that of my ethical fellow hunters. Their choices in the wild are pretty much limited - die of starvation, die of disease/malnutrition, die of a natural disaster (like a flood or the eruption of Mt St. Helens), die of painful old age , or die at the teeth and claws of another superior predator.

The deer population here in Oregon vastly exceeds that of Maine on a per acre and a total basis. This should not be.
We have innumerable coyotes, though they are hunted year around. We also - as ColdHeart mentioned have an enviro- extremist engineered moratorium on hunting bears - and cougars with dogs or bait stations. If you can't find and kill these furtive predators on your own - well you're pretty much screwed...it is just a matter of "accident".

As a direct result, both populations are skyrocketing - some would say out of control. Bear/human contacts are routine now - fortunately our little black bears are not agressive - usually. Cougar/human contacts are also up significantly.

Seven years ago, living with my ex wife in Gresham, Oregon a Portland suburb of 90,000, my 8 year old stepson came home from grade school telling me, "We had a cougar at school today, Daddy." I initially thought he meant a stuffed, mounted specimen brought by someone else's dad.

No, right in suburbia, walked a 3/4 grown young male cougar. Seen by a school secretary, the cat was walking in the breezeway entry (where schoolbuses offloaded in front of the school)10 minutes after the last bus emptied, exhibiting what I know to be stage 3 stalking behavior - walking in smaller circles, sniffing the air, head moving side to side...Police later treed the animal in a back yard, shot killed, and autopsied it. The remains of 3 housecats were found in the stomach of the 130lb predator.

Varmints spread disease, predators spread fear. Coyotes are both. The enviro-geeks are idealistic, naive and clueless (except where they are in leadership and operate from a deeper political agenda of trying to gain socialistic control), and they have no place setting public policy.

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