Coyote threat to ranchers is overstated for contests
CONTRARY TO A recent letter to the editor claiming coyotes and other native wildlife must be “controlled” by trapping and killing contests for the safety of calves at birth, I would like to say, that is an over-exaggerated talking point shared mostly by deer and quail hunters/ trappers, some of whom also ranch.
The idea of a coyote killing a fawn is sacrilegious and worthy of the death penalty in the minds of some hunters which is very unfair to coyotes whose main diet consists of rabbits, mice and other small prey. I remember a coyote contest killer posting on social media that he cut open the bellies of coyotes and found, not deer or calves, but insects.
Studies of coyotes is conclusive that coyote families are stable in numbers and social behaviors when left alone. Many people with children, livestock and pets have lived in safety and peace, side by side with native wildlife, coyotes included, so I find it curious that some people do and some don’t, meaning it’s as much or more a people problem as a coyote problem.
My father in law, co-founder of the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, ranched for more than 50 years and a few years ago when the controversy about coyote killing contests was in the news, I asked if he had many or any coyote problems on the ranch over the years. He said in a slow drawl, “why it was nearly nothin.” I love him. He’s an honest man who would never slander man or beast for any selfish purpose. I wish there were more like him in the world.
KAREN FRANZI Las Cruces