Posted on 01/17/2005 3:30:37 PM PST by SJackson
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."
Baldacci also finds the practice inhumane, spokesman Lee Umphrey said.
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.
"This has been a terrible embarrassment to the governor," she said.
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.
One of the reasons of the decline, Look said, is coyote attacks on fawns.
"Our deer population is zero to two per square mile," Look said. "If we had a normal deer population, this wouldn't be happening."
Mama got two
and so can you!
It's a Hunt!
It's a Game!
Two, Two, TWO funs in one!
Exterminate vermin, AND win BIG Prizes!
Prizes YOU can USE!
Like this stag handled Fleshing Knife from the Del Mar Bros.
and these space age stretching boards that will never crack,
peel, and are easy to clean!
Runners up get one pound packages of Yote Away!
the #1 Coyote control agent.
Disclaimer:
Must be over 16 to enter in adult catagories,
children under 8 must be accompanied by a parent,
NO automatic weapons allowed.
"Coyotes are pests plain and simple and have to be controlled by whatever means when they are destroying indigenous wildlife. If you don't then the whole ecosystem is in danger."
Well said.
Coyotes are very aggressive. Once they get a taste of pets, little children are next.
The picture shown in your post is the best looking and healthiest looking Coyote I've ever seen. These coyotes are living high on the hog in Maine. Looks like a wolf.
At one time, hunters in Oregon bought licenses (paid the state)to hunt bear with their dogs. Loony, left-wing idiots got the state to out law sport bear hunting with dogs.
Now the state pays professional hunters with dogs to go out and kill bears to keep the bear damage down.
At this very moment, my outdoor doggie is unhappily sitting inside because a coyote has been sighted in our neighborhood. This is liberal lala land, no one will ever shoot that coyote.
At this very moment, my outdoor doggie is unhappily sitting inside because a coyote has been sighted in our neighborhood. This is liberal lala land, no one will ever shoot that coyote. Whatever happened to dog's rights?
"This isn't a hunt. It's a game. That's what makes it sick.
And I DO live in an area with lots of wildlife."
So what? If 100 coyotes need to be hunted and killed would it make you happier if only depressed people are allowed to hunt them? Should only paid Fish & Game officers be charged with doing this at taxpayer expense as opposed to letting people freely *pay* for the hunting license necessary to participate?
It makes not one whit of difference to the animal if someone enjoys a hunt.
Frankly, an experienced hunter will be a better shot and more merciful than the trappers the government would inevitably have to employ to carry this out. Sending law enforcement officers after coyotes would be a huge waste of taxpayer money ESPECIALLY if there are people who'd PAY for the privilege.
Reboot your computer in "conservative" mode, okay?
Me and a buddy thumped one out here Sat. morning. Damn things are like rabbits out here (along with the friggin' bobcats.) Just doing out part to help the deer population maintain till hunting season.
Try reading post #34, okay?
You will better understand the good people of Maine once you've been alone in the woods and had a pair of coyotes decide whether or not you were worth the trouble. I believe to this day they understood the import of the .357 that was quickly in my hands. No shots fired and they found their dinner elsewhere.
They were excluded because they are ill-informed idiots whose opinions are irrelevant to the cold cruel facts of "mother" nature.
If however a few packs of wolves were ever to drop in on Walter Cronkite's front porch in Martha's Vineyard, or scamper past Fatty Kennedy's hot tub in Hyannisport, snipers with machine-guns would be called in on orders from the same Humane Society.
Urbanist bigotry.
I saw one outside my apartment complex in suburban Atlanta the other day. I advised my neighbor to start taking her cat in at night.
Actually the coyote is not native to the Eastern US. They are one of the few species that has an EXPANDED range since 1492.
Coyotes migrated east and occupied the newly-vacant canid niche as the Gray Wolf (NE USA) and the Red Wolf (SE USA) were killed off. However, the wolves weren't totally killed off -- studies show that the Eastern Coyotes have a few wolf genes. Apparently the last wolves interbred and absorbed into the oncoming tide of coyotes.
They are much harder to control, than wolves. They easily infest suburbs and make a good living there. And they breed like rats.
Some people like coyote hunting, some people like kissing bass. Same difference.
Just spotted one where I live in Vinings.
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