January’s JMK Coyote Hunt near Burns was the last its organizer will put on in Oregon. Duane Freilino, hunt organizer, agreed last month to settle a lawsuit with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Project Coyote. In the settlement, finalized this month, Freilino, a Burns rancher, agreed to not hold another hunting contest in the state and to pay more than $5,000 in attorney fees for the animal groups.
Local Wildlife rehabilitator Monte Merrick’s Change.org petition criticizing the US Dept of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services has garnered over 77,000 signatures.
If you live in a city or suburb, the only canines you expect to see are people’s pet dogs.
Aside from the Internal Revenue Service, it would be hard to think of a Federal agency more sharply unpopular with a large group of people than the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services.
Known as the North American Song Dog, coyotes historically lived in the Bay Area, including San Francisco, until the mid 1900s.
To kick off last fall’s inaugural Marin Conversations series, a North Bay affiliate of San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, celebrated actor and activist Peter Coyote took the stage at Mill Valley’s Outdoor Art Club with Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Larkspur-based Project Coyote (where Peter serves on the advisory board).