Coyote hunting contests, which award participants who bring in the biggest – or the most – wild canines during the competition, create quite a stir among the animal rights groups. Generally, I don’t believe hunting is a competitive sport in most instances, but I find nothing wrong with the contests because I don’t view coyotes through rose-colored glasses. I see them for what I think they truly are – vermin, varmints, predators, nuisances and furbearers. Basically, “D” – all of the above.

The majority of states in the U.S. have no closed coyote season – they may be hunted year-round. Most of the states that have a regulated hunting season impose only slight restrictions, such as no hunting during other specific seasons. Hawaii has no coyotes, so with the exception of Alaska (which has bag limits), the remaining 48 states have no daily or seasonal bag limits on these predators — you can shoot as many as you can during the season. It appears that wildlife biologists pretty much agree – shoot ’em.

Coyotes have become such a nuisance in this state that, several years ago, MassWildlife biologists expanded the season and relaxed the hunting regulations giving hunters more opportunities and tools to harvest the varmints. Yet, Massachusetts’ coyote season remains among the strictest, being nearly five months long, opening in mid-October and ending on March 8.

Other New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut) have no closed season. There’s a regulated season in Rhode Island and it’s almost two months longer than the Massachusetts season. Therefore, coyotes are not heavily protected with short seasons and strict bag limits as are true game animal and bird species like deer, black bear, wild turkeys and pheasants.

Coyotes are resilient and thrive in suburban, urban, and rural areas. They are opportunistic feeders and prey on small animals, birds, insects, free-range housecats and small dogs. They also eat vegetation as well as garbage, pet food, birdseed and compost.

As furbearers, there is value in their pelts. Prime Eastern coyote skins fetched an average of $40 last year with a top price of $122 at the North American Fur Auctions last spring, according to the 2018 Fur Market Report. Top grade Western coyote skins, which have softer fur than their Eastern cousins, averaged $105. The report said that coyote-trim parkas, which first started in Canada, are now a worldwide trend that is currently driving the market for their fur.

At retail, Glacier Wear (glacierwear.com) in Greenville, Maine, has a great website and offers northeastern coyote pelts from $59.95 to $99.95 and premium western Montana pelts up to $159.95. They also manufacture coyote fur hats from $149.95 to $249.95 with many more types of furs, skins and fur garments available. Moscow Hide and Fur (hideandfur.com) of Moscow, Idaho, lists coyote skins up to $399.95 for rare color phases, such as black. Both companies offer lower-priced skins and pieces for crafts. In addition to the necessity of furs for the fur and garment industry, there are lots of other uses for furs and skins, whether you buy them or shoot or trap your own.

Hunting contests are one way to help control the growing varmint population and utilize a valuable natural resource, though some disagree and view the snarling, toothy critters as cute and cuddly. Truth is, they’re nothing of the sort. They can bring down full-grown deer, ripping into their quarry’s flanks and disemboweling them alive. And they have no bond, allegiance or affection toward humans. While fatal attacks on humans are rare, they do happen. In 2009, a 19-year old woman was killed by coyotes in Canada. In 1981, a 3-year old girl died from injuries sustained in a coyote attack in California. In 1923, the San Bernadino Sun reported that a woman was killed by a pack of coyotes.

According to a 2017 article, “Coyote Attacks on Humans, 1970–2015: Implications for Reducing the Risks,” Rex O. Baker of California State Polytechnic University-Pomona (retired) and Robert M. Timm, Hopland Research & Extension Center, University of California (retired), documented 367 attacks on humans by coyotes from 1977 through 2015, of which 165 occurred in California. Of 348 victims, 209 (60 percent) were adults, and 139 (40 percent) were children, with Baker and Timm noting that toddlers are at greater risk of serious injury.

Some wildlife agencies recommend hazing to deter coyotes from neighborhoods but research has shown that results are only temporary once the animals become habituated and eventually lose their fear of humans.

When coyotes reach these stages, “any changes in coyote behavior due to hazing was usually temporary, only lasting a few weeks or months (depending on the methods used), unless one or more coyotes was trapped or shot,” stated Baker. “Without any real threat, many coyotes quickly adapt or habituate to sounds and to human activity.”

The Boone and Crockett Club (B & C) recently submitted a feature to The Outdoor Wire, exposing animal rights groups that are misusing B & C’s principles of fair chase to gain support for their efforts to ban coyote hunting contests. The groups claim such competitions use methods that violate the “fair chase” principles, a concept originated by B & C which was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1897.

In the story, B & C clarified some points. “There is important distinction that is being overlooked here,” stated Mark Streissguth, chair of the club’s Hunter and Conservation Ethics Committee. “Fair chase applies to the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, big game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper or unfair advantage over the game animals. Coyotes are not game animals.”

Coyotes are classified as a predator and non-game species. The hunting regulations, if any, are less stringent in order to encourage sufficient harvest that minimizes harm to other wildlife, pets and livestock. Controlling populations for such purposes has never incorporated a fair chase approach because it is more closely associated with removal or reduction of animals by the most efficient means possible, the story said.

“Allowing coyotes to negatively impact other wildlife and people because of a moral judgment that killing them is wrong is irresponsible,” said Streissguth. “While we object to applying fair chase incorrectly to gain a political victory, the Boone and Crockett Club maintains that no animal should be culled or killed without a purpose and encourages anyone participating in predator and varmint reductions to do so as respectfully and humanely as possible and commends those that do.”

It’s estimated that there are as many as 100 million coyotes marauding throughout the U.S., according to a 2018 article in NRAHLF.org, “Urban Coyote Attacks Increasing on Humans and Deer,” by James A. Swan, Ph.D. In another NRAHLF.org article, Swan points out that coyotes “now are breeding with feral dogs and wolves resulting in hybrid animals that are larger and have less fear of man.” In reality, the wild dogs certainly can use a bump in the harvest through hunting contests, an incentive to put some pressure on them.

It all makes me wonder how increasing the harvest, utilizing the resulting furs and supporting the age-old fur and sporting goods industries, which sustain thousands of jobs, affect the lives of animal rights extremists, who turn a deaf ear to scientific policies set forth by educated wildlife biologists and professionals hired to manage the species. I imagine they must lie awake at night, worried sick that somebody else might be enjoying themselves.

MassWildlife is holding a presentation on coyote management, hunting and contests on Thursday from 6–8 p.m. at the Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable (Building 6, Hall A).

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