It has always astounded me that experienced predator callers can consider such a beautiful, complex and fascinating canid to be vermin(various destructive insects or small animals rgarded as pests, as lice or rats.)
With the fascination and respect so many of us have developed for these animals over the years comes affection. That is what puts us on the opposite side of the fence from those that have developed an inordinate and undeserved hatred for the coyote.
Passions run high on both sides. It is understandable that sheepmen who are facing financial ruin from coyote depredation develope an intense dislike for the methods that coyotes use. But hunters who mount a personal crusade against the coyote because they view it as a competitor for the deer and turkey that they themselves hope to kill in the future should step back and take a closer look at the irony of their motives and beliefs.
The arguement that there is no closed season on the coyote does not make killing parents and puppies moral or ethical simply because it is not yet illegal. That will change. And I will campaign for it.
The management of coyotes at this time is still dictated by politics rather than sound biological recommendations. Present attitudes are a hold over from the war on predators that has been waged by the fes
deral government since Fish and Wildlife Service was inaugerated in July of 1885. Pioneers and settlers demanded aid in the private war against predators and were later joined by cattlemen (primarily wolf depredation) and sheepmen. These stockmen formed politically powerful Cattlemens Assoc. and Wool Growers Assoc. and elected government representatives that would assure that their needs were addressed and acted upon by congress and state legislatures. There was no middle ground. All out war was declared with the goal of total extirpation. The war was waged by private "wolfers" and govt. employees of WS, Bureau of Biological Survey, Parc, Predatory Animal Research Laboratory, Control Methods Laboratory, Division of Animal Damage Control, Division of Wildlife Management. USDA, and APHIS.
Government sponsored propaganda convinced the public that the harsh campaign , and the questionable methods they used, against predators was both reasonable and socially acceptable against a cruel, heartless and murderous coyote, wolf, lion , etc. When the wolf was extirpated the full weight of the machine turned toward the coyote.
In 1965 the Leopold Report to the Secretary of the Interior recommended that overkill be halted. In January of 1972 the Cain Committee Report was published and things began to change. 1080 was banned and "scorched earth" policies were abandoned. The concept of selective removal was embraced and Congress appropriated funds for Biological research of the coyote. Prior to that, Hope Ryden had written concerning the coyote " lore abounds, but facts are hard to come by." Today we have the published papers of scores of reseach studies by such as Camenzind, Lehner, Bekoff, Hays, Gipson, Silvers, Wells, Jaeger, Barrett, etc. etc. etc.
We have wealth of information about the behavior and ecological niche that this terrific little animal occupies and most of the hysterical misconceptions that had been perpetuated by stockmen and hunters with an agenda of extirpation have been proven to be false.
All of this has been offered to make the point that in this modern age of quick and easy accurate information old traditions and fictions and biases still prevent some degree of protection for the coyote that is afforded other furbearers, most of which are also predators. Some states have offered some protection during whelping season, I am sure that more will follow. I will happily and fanatically work to that end.
Sept. to March I will happily and fanatically call the coyote and support all that do.
