I take this news personally on two levels and it makes me spittin’ angry.
I’ve had a specific fondness for coyotes my entire life. We see them occasionally on our family farm near Cut Bank, Montana (Glacier County) and since I moved to Utah 42 years ago I encounter them fairly regularly on Antelope Island and in my wanderings throughout the Intermountain West.
I photographed this one about six weeks ago along a road on Antelope Island.
For me it’s a special occasion when I observe (and/or document with my camera) a coyote doing its natural thing. This young and inexperienced coyote was learning the ropes of survival as it attempted to hunt voles using the shade of a sunflower patch as cover.
Coyotes, like other predators, play a significant and positive role in the environment. That role is finally being better understood now that it’s almost too late since we’ve already wiped out most of our large predators. It’s a complex subject whose scope is too vast to cover adequately here but thankfully the wily coyote is still here in reasonably good numbers.
But the “Wildlife Services” branch of the USDA is doing their damndest to wipe coyotes out too. Following is some background and recent news as it applies specifically to coyotes and Glacier County, Montana where I grew up and still consider “home.”
Glacier County is mostly rural, consisting of two small towns (Cut Bank and Browning), farms and ranches, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and Lewis and Clark National Forest. It’s bordered on the north by 75 miles of international border with Canada.
Recently “Wildlife Services” (I always put that deliberately misleading name in quotes, hereafter to be referred to as WS) and local ranchers are promoting a campaign to fund a helicopter for hunting and killing coyotes in Glacier County. Hunting them from the air is much more “efficient” and doing it this time of year increases that efficiency because it’s calving season for cattle and the beginning of breeding season for coyotes.
In a recent “news” article (the article isn’t really journalism because it doesn’t present the other side of the issue) in the Cut Bank Pioneer Press ranchers are being encouraged to fund the expense of the helicopter because of its extra and significant expense of $625 per hour. That funding would be provided through the use of a “cattle petition”. The following quote from the article attempts to justify the extra expense, particularly on the reservation but elsewhere in the county too.
- “Keep in mind that helicopters are fast and effective,” Kipp said. “In an eight-hour day, the minimum number of coyotes removed from the reservation is 100. That amounts to one coyote every five minutes, and costs about $50 a head. Most ranches can benefit from one hour of control”.
The number of predators killed annually by WS in the U.S. is simply astounding, including but not limited to the following native predators killed in 2016 alone:
- 76,859 coyotes
- 997 bobcats
- 410 bears
- 415 wolves
- 332 mountain lions
But WS doesn’t draw the line at predators, far from it. Following is a link to a list from the USDA of all the species of animals WS killed in 2016 only, including the number of each species killed and the kill/capture/restrain method. Invasive species are highlighted in turquoise. The link has already been filtered to include only animals that were killed and it excludes those that were removed or freed.
I realize that many readers don’t follow links like this but in this situation I highly recommend that you follow this one. I predict it will blow your mind.
At the request of corporate and private agricultural interests and the hunting lobby “Wildlife Services” (I despise the strategic misnaming of that agency) uses traps, snares, poisons, gas and aerial gunning to kill animals, most of them native. And whistleblowers repeatedly report that the real numbers are significantly higher but just not reported by WS.
I support the work of most federal government agencies but WS is out of control and I believe it should be reformed and largely disbanded and what’s left should be renamed. Their methods are cruel, indiscriminate, ineffective and mostly funded by taxpayer dollars. They spend far more to kill predators than the actual damage those predators cause and by their own account they killed 2.7 million animals in 2016 alone.
It’s past time to say goodbye to “Wildlife Services” as we know it today.
Ron
Notes:
- It goes without saying that individuals have a right to protect private property but WS is overkill to the extreme.
- This is a highly complex issue whose scope is much too large to cover adequately in a blog post. More info here if you have the interest
- Some of my friends and even family in Glacier County will likely disagree with me. So be it. We don’t have to agree on everything to be friends or family. And I won’t argue about it because I know from experience that doing so is about as fruitful as arguing about politics or religion or trying to convince a flat-earther of his mistaken notions.
I don’t see as many Coyotes in our area either. I too enjoy them, and they get a bad rap. I find man kind to be so ignorant at times. Beautiful picture of the Coyote by the flowers.
I read your post yesterday but was just too full of weldschmerz to say anythimg. I am not optimistic that our species will avoid making the earth largely uninhabitable and eliminating as many other species as it can in the process, intentionally or not. WS appears to be just another combination of greed, arrogance, and man’s unique capacity for cruelty all under the banner of good science and agriculture.
Ron, I’m very late to the party, but read your blog hours ago and I’ve been mulling it over in my mind ever since.
I find the list of animals that have been killed astounding. I’m sure, in some cases, there is good cause but killing Robins, I don’t understand.
Thank you for alerting us to this endeavor that seems to have gotten out of control.
I agree that all of this is appalling and destructive but with regards to coyotes, I have faith in God’s Dog. Ignorant humans have been trying to wipe them out of North America for 400 years and they just keep expanding and strengthening. Coyotes have figured out our foolish human behaviors and they thrive. I think we must expose and stop the programs you describe because they demean us as members of our ecosystem. Coyotes rule.
I agree, I don’t think they’ll ever wipe them out either, Porcupine. But no species should be subjected to what they go through.
Wow. They didn’t take any flying squirrels. But they did get those evil armadillos. Their rat numbers are woefully low.
The list is quite a surprise and the reasoning behind many of the killings is unclear to me.
It’s unclear to me too, Pam. Some of it is probably related to people complaining to WS about random wildlife “problems” and requesting relief.
It is historic that when the human animal tries to control nature they truly just make a mess of things. One story I really like is how re-introducing wolves to Yellowstone has brought back some tree growth that the elk and deer were on the way to eliminating. Humans are too reactive to be given total control over wildlife without more science, study and evaluation.
The figures in these reports are astounding.
Agreed, on both counts, Betty.
Certain areas of Idaho are open to helicopter Elk hunting because of VERY wealthy Utah based land owners. How, in any world, is that “Hunting”?
Good question.
This list is very hard, emotionally, to read over. I look at some of these species and have to ask why? Is it your turn to kick a hornets nest? So sad.
I have a hard time reading it too, April.
Thanks for the beautiful coyote photos, Ron!
A couple things that people can do:
1. Contact your Congressional representatives and urge them to support/pass legislation that cuts funding for “Wildlife Services”.
2. Go even more local and find out if your county hires “Wildlife Services”. If they do, meet with them and talk with them about the barbaric
means they use to kill wildlife and demand that they cut their contract with “Wildlife Services”.
3. Writing letters to the editor of your local paper, if they do in fact contract with “WS”, to let the public know. The average person has no clue, nor do they even know what “WS” is, nor what they do/how they do it. Educating the public goes a long way to try and get them defunded.
Peter DeFazio (Rep. Oregon) has introduced legislation to cut funding for this rogue agency.
Thanks, Karen. I didn’t know about DeFazio’s introduced legislation.
The images are beautiful, especially the first two–the numbers are sickening!!! DPA, EPA…Environmental PROTECTION??? Should be DED, Department of Environmdnt DESTRUCTION… (Pronounced “DEAD”)…
Thanks, Patty.
Disclaimer…I eat meat. Part of me well understands that supplying my demand helps drive the “economics” of livestock management practices. That said I’d add this: dollar for dollar and pound for pound of product, the livestock interests that make use of public land in no way compensate for the damage left in their wake. Systematic extermination of “predators” (with $625/hr helicopters for god’s sake!) is only one egregious and overblown “standard practice” of this form of agriculture that our government not only condones but actively enables. In 2013 I spent the better part of a month walking trails within a ten mile range off State Highway 4 in Northern California. These walks were long enough to get me significant distances into The Carson-Iceberg Wilderness of the Stanislaus National Forest in Alpine County. Along all of them I saw cattle and/or evidence of cattle herds. At that time an Alpine County Sheriffs Deputy told me there were 1100 human residents in Alpine County and an estimated 11,000 cattle. At Upper Gardner Meadow, very near the Nevada state line and overlooking the western extent of the Toiyabe National Forest I encountered about 100 cattle. This high alpine meadow–an area of 6-8 acres–and the small, late summer melt water stream struggling to meander through it were quagmires churned everywhere to ankle deep muck by the cattle. Those cattle stay in the high country about 3 months each summer. At today’s pricing (see below) it would cost the owner $1.35/cow (or cow + calf)/month or $4.05/month/animal. For those 100 cattle, then, trashing what should have been a pristine alpine meadow at that season cost $405. Can’t tell you what a single beef steer was selling for at auction at that time but I’ll bet the owner didn’t have to sell many of that 100 to pay his federal grazing debt. Free market advocates rail endlessly about letting markets determine costs. Unless and until we find a way to accurately assess the environmental damages our “agricultural needs” cause we’ll never get past shooting “predators” to protect cattle in the name of controlling costs. How about shooting cattle to protect unspoiled landscapes? Which–I’d argue these days–we may need more of than meat on our plates. The Central Sierra Environmental Resource Council–a local, grassroots environmental restoration and advocacy crew–is currently engaged in several law suits regarding these practices.
From “The Hill” 2/21/19:
Two federal agencies are cutting the fees that ranchers and other land managers pay them to graze their animals on public land.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service announced Wednesday that the fees would be $1.35 for each month that an animal unit — one cow and calf, one horse, five sheep or five goats — grazes.
That’s a cut from last year’s $1.41 per animal unit, and it’s the lowest that federal law allows.
The Trump administration said the fee represents a commitment to agriculture.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/431037-agencies-reduce-grazing-fees-for-federal-land
I read about the Trump administration lowering grazing fees a few days ago, James. They were too low already, below fair market value to begin with. Makes me sick.
I’m a meat eater too but I’d gladly pay a little more for it if it meant they would stop these despicable practices.
New Mexico has just made an annual coyote hunt here illegal It is a telling thing when we can’t find non-violent solutions to problems WE CREATED! It may be why we are a “shoot first, ask questions later (or rather, make up lies later)” country. I love my country, but…
I actually mentioned that NM development in my reply to the first comment below, Arwen. Good news.
Ron, thank you for this article and speaking up about this senseless killing and waste of taxpayers money. (I sent you a Facebook PM)
Thank you, Ed.
This is why I don’t live in the mountain west. Belief set is stuck in the 18th century.
What you can do is get the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, or some other reputable outfit with clout and money to sue. We here in California have done that most all my life, over and over, rinse and repeat. There was a ballot measure about 20 years ago to allow mountain lion hunting. It was backed by, among others, a fundamentalist sect of Christians. My pal Bob was a Sierra Club lobbyist. He said “Well, it’s just another battle in the age-old war between the lions and the Christians. This time, the Sierra Club is rooting for the lions.”
“This is why I don’t live in the mountain west. Belief set is stuck in the 18th century”
Seems to me that’s painting with a pretty broad brush, Martha. But I’m sad to admit that there’s a ring of truth to it too.
Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Predator Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council are some other organizations fighting against the tactics of WS.
You’re right, it’s a broad brush. I apologize. Make that 19th century.
I am not sure about their figures for AR. I think they may have put the figures on the wrong lines.. ie only 1 coyote but 8,135 Cormorants. There are others too.
Jo, Many, many thousands of cormorants are killed to “protect” fishing resources and fish farms. Perhaps that’s the case for AR. Don’t know why they’re reporting only one coyote.
This is eye-opening, Ron. I did follow your link and also the one to my state (New Mexico), and I was struck by the numbers of small birds that were shot. First of all why and second how. I really think the critters need to be given guns and learn to shoot back. The numbers of different kinds of trap is appalling also. Have we as humans no respect for other animals?
“Have we as humans no respect for other animals?”
As a rule and as a species we do not, Ann.
NM here as well, Ann. I’m in Rio Rancho. I was horrified.
I agree that controlled management of coyotes is sometimes necessary,
as it is with white-tailed deer here in Massachusetts.
But how is it ok to be killing kestrals, bluebirds, green herons, sandpipers,
flycatchers and robins. It’s hard to see any of them being a threat to anyone
or anything. You were right-that list is a real eyeopener.
Eye-opener is right, Bernie.
I think some of the birds on that list are killed at airports to protect planes but many of them, blackbirds and the like, are killed when farmers/ranchers report them eating their crops and cattle feed.
But isn’t killing most birds against the Bird Treaty Act or has that been repealed?
Ann, I believe WS is exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty.
A subject that sends disgust and anger through my body, almost on a daily basis! I too, despise the WS practices and it’s deceptive name. When presenting data and facts to those who simply love to kill coyotes, you can’t have a reasonable discussion. Their common claim, suggesting they are somehow protecting us all from these evil killing machines, is such an obvious lie. It makes my blood boil! I often counter with a factual list of fatal dog attacks that occur each year in the U.S.. Check the link below and scroll to down to see the expanded lists by year. If coyotes are so evil and so dangerous that they need to be eradicated at any cost and by any method, where is the same outrage and fear of dogs who kill people at an alarming rate? There is none, because it’s not about management of dangerous animals. It’s about supporting the agenda of those who kill for the sport of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States?fbclid=IwAR0mtTDCWLFM65ubBVv_DQDkotraMH9Yrd4ld5_nsdo6TTKdjaCQRv4WjAs
The info in that link is an eye-opener, Everett and it points out the irrationality of a portion of their position, although they claim livestock depredation as a reason for killing coyotes much more than they do their danger to human life.
And you’re right, it’s rare to have a rational discussion with promoters of indiscriminate killing of coyotes.
G-Morning Ron, The following statement is what I’ve sent to many Government and Conservation groups that also relates to Coyotes; and my new blog this year does initially replicate the same comments you’ve made. Personally, I’ve enjoyed watching Coyotes Vole and Mouse hunting in my fields that are more appreciated on my property than the stray cats! I’ve been asked “OK to shoot Coyotes? I reply NO when asked and giving permission to hunt Deer as here in Ohio Coyotes continue to be vilified. I do offer a suggestion (below) beyond repeated lip flapping that solves nothing.
“As Wolf Depredation on Domestic Livestock escalates, in the U.S. and throughout the World with the Wolves successful re-introduction populations spread, the contentious anger between Livestock Producers and Conservationists does also grow. My published research Blog at http://WWW.FENCEFLAGWOLFTRAINING.COM is a tangible suggestion, with minimal cost, to mitigate the anger on both sides of the fence!” Don
Thanks for the link, Donald.
I’ve reposted this to my fb page and look forward to hearing if there is anymore we can do. It seems so ironic given the name…sounds more like wildlife disservices!
I hate that name, Mary. It’s dishonest and deliberately deceiving.
Ron, thanks for this post and the lovely photos of the coyotes. You didn’t mention the horrible suffering of many animals in traps. Colorado has a “padded leg hold trap only” law, but it does not apply to the work of “Wildlife Services” or anyone they hire to carry out their cruel work.
“You didn’t mention the horrible suffering of many animals in traps”
I didn’t mention a lot of things about the methodology of WS – it would take too much room and too much time. But you’re right, Nancy – traps and snares, more than any other methods, should be banned outright. Everywhere and always.
It IS a complex issue – being in farm/ranch country in N Central MT coyotes are a headache for ranchers, particularly at calving time, and those with poultry or sheep even dogs and other small pets. I hate the indiscriminate killing of them – of anything without a more or less “fair” hunt unless it’s a particular problem animal/pack. The coyotes in particular have, so far, had an amazing ability to recover. At present they are also struggling here with the deep snow and cold as I imagine they are in Glacier County. One more example of humans thinking one piece of the puzzle can be eliminated without affecting the whole. I have no answers………. 🙁
I agree, there are no easy, rational answers, Judy. But it sure as hell isn’t “Wildlife Services” or coyote killing contests.
In all the years on the Montana farm I never remember my family or my uncle’s family having problems with coyotes – not a single instance. But then we didn’t have many cattle, though my uncle often kept chickens, geese, pigs and even pet rabbits kept outside. We had more problems with skunks and weasels.
Ron, good morning. Love coyotes and love these photos. I often encounter them and actually look forward to seeing them on early morning photo jaunts. And I agree with you emphatically. I have read about the farmers, ranchers, and neighborhoods who wants them eradicated, but they will not get my support. They are beautiful animals that play an important part in our environment. My numbers may not be accurate, but when they moved a large number of our pronghorns to Tucson they killed over 300 coyotes in preparation so that the pronghorn newborns would have a chance to live and grow the herd. I am sure there are good arguments to be made by both sides, but it seems so cruel to murder these animals in numbers like that. Maybe if I was a rancher I would feel differently?
Everett Sanborn, Prescott AZ
I agree with you about coyotes, Everett. There are likely instances where control of individual animals is warranted but mass and indiscriminate killing of them is never warranted, it’s harmful to the environment and it should be criminal.
Here in Oregon recently they had a contest to see how many one could kill. Talk about a uproar, the state was not ready for it at all. Man I feel is dead set to destroy itself. We are all hear for a purpose, trouble is man does not understand that or could care less. Sorry, like your I get worked up, I’m retired should learn to be calmer, but this subject I can’t.
I can’t stay calm about it either, Steven – as evidenced by this post.
Coyote killing contests are finally beginning to get the exposure and public reaction they deserve. I believe I saw in the news recently that they’re being banned in New Mexico, due in part to my friend and occasional commenter here Ed Mackerrow.