Ranchers Complain of Coyote Attacks

AzWill

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Ranchers Complain of Coyote Attacks

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - California's cowboys and ranchers are seeing a steep rise in mountain lion and coyote attacks on livestock, and blame a 1998 state law banning steel-jaw leg-hold animal traps.

Recently released U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show that last year 14,900 cattle and calves were killed by predators in California - up from 5,600 killed in 1995, nearly a 170 percent increase.

"A lot of it is due to an increase in the mountain lion population. When they eat, they eat our cattle, there's no doubt about it. Coyotes are also bad - I don't know which I'd say is the worst," said Jo Ann Switzer, third-generation owner of the 10,000-acre Arnold Ranch near Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County.

Coyotes are the main culprit, according to the USDA, and are blamed for almost 67 percent of all the cattle and calves killed by predators last year. Mountain lions and bobcats are blamed for 22 percent of the deaths.

The rest of the animals were killed by dogs or black bears, for the most part. The killings cost the state's ranchers $5 million in lost revenue in 2000.

California's mountain lion population is estimated at 2,500 to 5,000. The state has no estimates for the coyote population.

Ranchers insist the best methods for keeping predators in check were banned when voters approved a measure prohibiting the use of steel-jaw leg-hold traps in California. The measure also outlawed two types of poison.

"We've lost the control techniques, and that's been tragic. The public's been hoodwinked on that. The modern traps just aren't that painful," said Walter Howard, professor emeritus of wildlife biology and vertebrate ecology at the University of California at Davis.

Animal rights groups and others supporting the measure, including the Humane Society of the United States and the Sierra Club, say the traps are cruel. Similar laws have passed in Colorado, Arizona and Massachusetts.

Bob Reder of the Humane Society said there are other ways to reduce the threat from predators, including sterilization of males through injections and using other animals to guard flocks.

Ranchers "have historically blown this predator problem a little bit out of proportion to meet their end goals of complete annihilation of predators in those areas," Reder said. "Sheep raisers have used donkeys and burros as protection animals on the flocks."

Although mountain lions are protected by law, a rancher who can prove his cows are being killed can get a permit to kill the cat. Coyotes are not protected and can be killed on sight.

Every year since 1995, about 250 to 300 mountain lion permits were issued and about 100 to 120 were killed, according to the Fish and Game Department.


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[This message has been edited by AzWill (edited 05-25-2001).]
 
I wonder how Mr. Reder would feel if his home state passed a law that would allow someone or something to take a $500.00 bill from him at their will, with little or no recourse. I have never thought that depredation of any specie was the answer for the ranchers problem, however the ability to protect what is ours is an absolute necessity. The loss of grass from prairie dogs, calve from coyotes and calves thru cows with lions is in fact a real and costly fact. Since the passage of amendment 14 in CO we have seen a huge increase in predator problems, if the state or private parties would like to establish a trust fund for the losses incurred not only by ranchers but by all who may encounter a problem ,then I feel the other side has in fact has taken a positive and responsible attitude towards their belief. The said part will be when the predators start finding it is actually easier to take a child than a calf then what good will any of the above do. We need varmint and predator hunters to control the rapidly increasing population; of such critters. I will stop rambling for now but something has to be done to help all the people concerned. RE
 
Will, the only thing the ranchers should be concerned about is the fact that coyotes can swim. The ban on trapping will result in plenty of land being flooded during the next wet winter because beaver are burrowing into California's extensive levee system. Maybe the voters will wake up to reality when a cougar on a log floats into their back yard.
 
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