Loss to livestock happens a few different ways. You have the coyotes that directly kill a calf or lamb either to feed on or to train pups how to kill, more common with sheep and lambs as calves are big enough to defend themselves by the time pups are being trained. You also have the coyote that will shadow a new mother cow/calf and cause the cow to neglect the calf and it will die from exposure and then be eaten, more common where cows are pastured away from the ranch. The most common loss to livestock is production loss, which is the over-all weight loss across a herd due to stress from predators, not nessarily death from predators but the combined weight lost from each head of cattle at sale time vs. what the cattle would have weighed if not exsposed to predator stress. This can and does add up very fast to the rancher. This type of control work is paid for by either the individual rancher, a rancher/sheepherder assoc. or USDA and our tax money. There are both private and public wildlife controllers and they use a wide variety of control tactics to carry out the work.
In addition coyote control work can and is done to protect big game animals just before and during fawning time. Most of the cost of this type of control is paid for by the game and fish depts and your liscense fees. Sometimes it is paid for by user groups like Delta Waterfowl or various big game hunter groups. The idea is fairly simple in that you remove the coyotes from the area prior to fawns dropping and then continue to control predators until the fawns are big enough to defend themselves resulting in more game animals and more liscense sales the following fall. Control work of this type is more prevalent in western states but quite a few states have programs in place to protect wintering yards or wintering ranges from predators as well.
Coyotes also bring money both directly and as taxes from recreational hunters and the money they spend on calling equipment, gas, travel, motel rooms, food ect... In addition many hunters sell their furs and generate personal income as well as taxable income.
In the future we may well see a trend of coyote control in major metro and suburban areas that do not recieve any hunting pressure as the coyotes expand into populated areas and lose fear of humans and learn that we are a good source of easy food. Coyotes will take pets as easier prey then wildlife and also are not above raiding garbage cans.
Try not to paint the picture of coyotes as evil killers. They have a place in the natural enviroment and while they need to be controlled, severily in some places, they do not need to be "wiped out". They are only carrying on what they have done in one way or another for a long, long time. While I personally don't think they need to be treated as game animals, we do need to make sure that they are not demonized as all out killers and give the animal the respect that it deserves. Coyote control is about loss prevetion and that does not always mean killing the offender, sometimes it means changing our ways of doing things so that the coyote can not affect you in a harmful way. Many times I've been on a complaint call and heard all these stories of calf killers when in reality the rancher had another problem that killed the calves/sheep and then coyotes being oppurtunist fed on the dead calf.
Be ready to defend your postion as many people seem to have a problem with control work in one way or another. Of course those types have never had to deal with a problem animal but they will have an opinion on how you should deal with them anyways.
Tim
