[This Q&A is excerpted from Dr. Fox’s The Animal Doctor column dated March 15, 2020. You can read the entire column here.]
DEAR DR. FOX: I respectfully disagree with your opinion that all coyote hunts are problematic and cruel, and should be banned.
When I was growing up on our farm in central Illinois, we did not have a problem with coyotes. However, the coyote population throughout Illinois has exploded. We used to have a fairly large outdoor cat population on the farm, but the coyotes have killed them all. They have also killed all the rabbits.
When I visit the farm now, I hear coyotes howling right outside the front of the house. When I walk my small dog at night, I keep her on a short leash and use a flashlight.
The problem is that there are no predators for the coyotes, so the population keeps expanding. My sister lives in a large suburb of Chicago called Arlington Heights, and she sees coyotes in broad daylight in her backyard and on the street. Hers is a highly populated residential area. Small dogs confined to backyards have been killed by coyotes.
Coyote pelts are worthless, so there is no incentive for hunters to kill them. I am an animal lover, but we have too many coyotes (and deer), so I am totally in favor of them being hunted to control further population growth. I care more about the safety of people’s pets than I do about coyotes. — D.R., Lincoln, Nebraska
DEAR D.R.: I sympathize with your concerns, but do not agree with the killing of coyotes, since this does not help regulate their numbers.
Ironically, killing in one area will mean more coyote cubs being born in nearby areas, since there is then more food available for their mothers. They then subsequently recolonize those areas of temporary extermination.
State and federal agents have used traps, snares, denning, fishhooks, dogs, cyanide guns and poison bait for decades, but the coyotes have continued to colonize region after region, state after state.
You are witnessing evolution: These predators are adapting to conditions we humans have made favorable for them and their prey, including free-roaming cats (who should be indoors) and unattended dogs. Coyotes will also kill white-tailed deer fawns, the overabundance of which we humans have created for the hunting industry and by the virtual extermination of the wolf. Through competitive exclusion, wolf packs once limited the spread of coyotes.
For more details, read Dan Flores’ book, “Coyote America.” And for ways to avoid coyote conflicts and establish a more harmonious coexistence — which will benefit us, since coyotes also consume small rodents that harbor Lyme and other tick-borne diseases — visit projectcoyote.org.