August 1, 2007. Terrible News: MA coyote hunting season extended
If you never believed me about how incredibly pro-hunting the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries of Wildlife (and just about all state game agencies) are then listen up. Yesterday, the state wildlife board increased the coyote hunting season by about 5 weeks. Despite the incredible amount of data through my book and publications that I have personally made publicly available the state has decided to cater to the hunting public. I remind you that hunters make up less than 1 percent of the state’s population in Mass. and it is highly likely that only a fraction of those 1 percent actually hunt coyotes (most hunt birds, rabbits, and/or deer).
The line from the Springfield Republic sums it up: “Although the number of coyotes is believed to be growing in the state and complaints about them are increasing, the measure was taken not to control their population but to "enhance opportunities" for people to hunt coyotes, wildlife officials said.”
In other words, forget that coyotes are incredibly intelligent and family oriented, forget that they have strong bonds with each other, forget that scientific data supports the view that they regulate their numbers through their own territoriality, forget the notion that coyotes are an important part of the ecosystem, no, no, no… We want to provide more than the 4 months of unlimited hunting to the hunters in this state.
Conservation groups are you listening. I think it is time for a referendum to either support my Recommendations for Coyote Management (click here), or better yet, make coyote hunting illegal in Mass. Remember these are the same people (the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife) making it a nightmare for me to get permits to study the same animals that they are allowing to be shot. Here is my original letter to the state which strongly opposes the regulations that they just passed (however, I am not surprised they were passed nonetheless).
I often wonder if decision makers think of their own pets (especially dogs) when deciding the fate of the eastern coyote in Mass. How sad. Read on…
Coyote hunting season extended
Posted by The Republican Newsroom July 31, 2007 21:14PM
By STAN FREEMAN
sfreeman@repub.com
HADLEY - The state wildlife board voted unanimously today to lengthen the hunting season for Eastern coyotes by about five weeks.
Weighing strong public opposition and support for the measure, the seven-member board also placed Eastern coyotes on the list of problem animals that licensed animal control agents are now allowed to remove from a property when certain conditions, which are still to be determined, are met.
Although the number of coyotes is believed to be growing in the state and complaints about them are increasing, the measure was taken not to control their population but to "enhance opportunities" for people to hunt coyotes, wildlife officials said.
In fact, "The proposed hunting season will neither decrease nor increase the population," Thomas O'Shea, the assistant director of wildlife for the State Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, told the board.
Once coyotes have filled a territory, as they have in Massachusetts , they react to hunting pressures and changes in food availability by having more or fewer young, whatever is needed to maintain population stability, he said.
The board voted to lengthen the hunting season for coyotes so that it will run from the Monday after Columbus Day - which falls on Oct. 13 this year - through March 8, including the two-week shotgun season for deer immediately after Thanksgiving. The current hunting season for coyote runs from Nov. 1 until the end of February, but excludes the deer-hunting season.
Eastern coyotes first appeared in Massachusetts in the 1950s. It's believed western coyotes, which have long been common in that region, migrated into Canada , bred with wolves there, and the resulting hybrid began to move into the U.S. Northeast in the 1930s. Eastern coyotes are larger than their western cousins, typically weighing 30 to 45 pounds. It is believed there are 3,000 to 8,000 coyotes in Massachusetts and that they have now saturated the state, filling all suitable habitat.
Coyotes are known to take domestic cats and small dogs for food, but being sly and elusive, they rarely attack or are aggressive toward humans.
Joseph S. Larson of Pelham, a board member, said that following two contentious public hearings this spring about the proposed change to the coyote hunting season, he and other members were inundated with e-mails and written reactions from citizens.
"It was an interesting pattern of responses. From Western Massachusetts ... There were very few responses," even though coyotes are common in the region, he said.
"From Central Massachusetts , there were somewhat more. The vast majority of responses came from Eastern Massachusetts ... especially from inside (Route) 128," Larson said.
Both the most vehement opposition and support for the changes came from Eastern Massachusetts, he said, with some condemning the increased hunting and others saying "all of the coyotes should be shot."
