Coyote on the shoreline of the frozen Great Salt Lake
Media outlets (TV stations and newspapers) jump on stories where a Coyote kills a cat or a dog and sometimes even when a hiker and their dogs are surrounded by Coyotes.
Two fairly recent news casts and one newspaper article come to my mind easily, the articles on the TV were played each time the news came on:
Hiker encounters pack of coyotes in North Salt Lake
Dog snatched by coyote during hike, woman says
Salt Lake City woman says coyote snatched, killed her dog
I feel really bad for the woman who lost her dog. I love dogs but I certainly wouldn’t be walking a small dog off leash in an area that the DWR says is an on leash area. That is pretty much a no-brainer.
Alert Coyote pup
But those news articles made me wonder why it is we don’t see articles about the senseless slaughter on Coyotes, is it too gory for prime time news? Does it offend the viewers to see a Coyote’s guts fly into the air after it has been shot? Or is it considered insensitive by the news agencies to show a Coyote suffering when it is being mangled by a steel trap? Why is it that these news agencies rush right out to interview people who lost a dog or were in involved in a close encounter with Coyotes but I haven’t seen the news agencies rush out to follow around a Coyote hunter killing the Coyotes?
The news agencies can demonize Coyotes but don’t write a thing about their deaths? That hardly seems fair or right.
Last year I wrote a post about people in North Salt Lake complaining about the vole irruption they had titled Farmington Utah’s Voles – Just My Opinion and in that post I wrote about some of the suggestions that people had made in the comment section to a) get an outdoor cat and b) use poison to control the voles, both suggestions are not wise at all. And as I suspected the vole population decreased; I might even call it crashed, around fall. I wrote about natural predators, about getting a Kestrel nest box because those little falcons love to catch and eat voles. I also wrote about Coyotes and how many voles they can eat in just five minutes.
Coyotes are predators but they hunt to find enough food to survive.
They aren’t out hunting just to senselessly kill, they aren’t killing for the fun of it and they aren’t killing out of some uneducated or unreasonable fear of their prey.
They aren’t doing it to be famous on YouTube. Last night I was doing some research on Google and came across a link to a video there that made me angry, disgusted and yes, it made me cry towards the end. The title of the video is “110 Coyote Kills in 220 Seconds!!”
If you have a weak stomach, please don’t watch it because it is gory and very disturbing but I think that reputable news agencies ought to report on the senseless slaughter that videos like this one shows. Why haven’t they if they can write articles and show news stories when Fido goes missing?
By the way, at 1:51 seconds into the video the animal that is shot isn’t a Coyote, it is a Bobcat.
I forced myself to watch the whole horrible video and at the end I was very disturbed that some humans; we who are supposed to be the most intelligent beings on earth, find this amusing or entertaining.
I don’t, I find it revolting because I am a compassionate person. I am a humane person. I’m someone who gives a damn about nature, our planet and all of the animals it holds.
Adult Coyote
I dare news agencies to write factual articles about the inhumane practice of slaughtering Coyotes which has been proven by science to be largely ineffective in controlling their population, to observe the Coyotes being blown up in their dens and to witness the suffering of these animals when they are caught in traps. I dare them to watch these intelligent creatures have their ears cut off for a bounty and see them skinned. I dare them to shadow a Coyote hunter for a few days and show the public just how sickening it is.
An estimated 400,000 Coyotes a year are being killed and you have to dig to find that information in the news, but one dog gets killed by them here in Utah and it was on the 4, 5, and 10 o’clock news, probably the noon news the next day and in the newspapers. Seems a bit skewed to me.
I dare them.
But I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to report on it because they know that many of their viewers will be repulsed by their articles or news reports and will change the channel or skip the article.
Mia
Click here to view more of my Coyote photos plus facts and information about this species.
P.S., nasty comments by Coyote haters will not be approved by me. This is my blog and I won’t tolerate rudeness here.
Julie is right — it’s about using common sense around these wonderful animals who are very smart. Instead the solution seems to be to kill these amazing creatures who are top line predators and help keep nature in balance. I was also heartbroken that a bobcat was killed. All these predators perform a valuable service and I keep hoping that people will wake up!
Lynn, I keep hoping people will wake up and realize we should allow nature to balance not try to control it with ill planned and scientifically unproven methods. Perhaps future generations will do so.
There is also a demand for coyote meat. So not everyone gets just a $50 reward, some may get much more than that in the exotic meat-eating industry business.
Maria, I had no idea that people ate Coyote meat, I know they use the pelts to make hats and coats, which I find very repulsive.
It is sold at an exotic meat market website. It”s all in my recent Green Iguana post. He even sells lion meat. Exotic meat is a gourmet cuisine with business in the U.S.. Very few people know about it but it exists and meat sells for outrageous prices. The owner also likes to target his meats to selected Asian and Hispanic consumers who still believe the meats contain aphrodisiac qualities.
Thanks Maria, that is disturbing.
Thanks for posting this, Mia. I hope your appeal will change at least some minds. When I hear coyotes at night a shiver runs down my spine. I never let my little dog out into our yard by herself and at night stand by the back door to watch her. They are such gorgeous animals! Beautiful photos!
Hilke I hope to enlighten even one person. I gets chills when I hear Coyotes too but they are shivers of joy for me.
On my friends farm the dog would go out and play with one coyote which meant getting out the gun and calling the dog back, because they knew the rest of the pack would close in.I think they were just fired at because no coyote was shot-or they didn’t tell me. We have had a cougar and bears wander in(re-located) and coyotes live here in the city with a population of over a million people because ravines run through the middle and I have spotted one, actually three altogether over a long period of time. One was a coyote that came on the same trail that I was walking my friends dog in an off-leash area and I called her back and left because she was an old dog and the coyote was less than 20 feet away but the coyote actually came out onto the field where it was chased away.There are signs where the coyotes are to keep your pets on-leash and not to leave your pet’s food out in the backyard.I sympathise with this woman for her loss but she was out before daybreak, she had her dog off-leash and she had heard the coyotes before. There are areas in a National Park where I have been alone and turned back when I heard a pack howling and it sounded too close for comfort.Blowing up the den sounds inhumane and so does an all-out cull. I hope the wildlife people are keeping track so they don’t wipe out the population.
Jane,
Science has proven the more Coyotes are killed the more food the surviving Coyotes have and they produce more pups. These bounties are a waste of money and aren’t managing the population at all. It is just crazy to keep doing what hasn’t been working for decade after decade.
I feel horrible that this woman lost her pet but I can’t blame the Coyotes.
Oh Mia, I practically cried from anger and sadness when I read this post…It’s true and not fair. Like Steve, I won’t be watching the video..I know it’s out there. I wish there was something else I could do because we need to have these predators around and not brutally punish them for simply living. My pets are supervised outside and remain inside at night. I chose to live here, but the coyotes were here before I was. I respect their place around me and we live as neighbors. I especially love to hear them “greeting” one another in the night. Such beautiful, happy yipping! I imagine them crowding around each other so happy,playing and wagging tails. It makes me smile every time. I will tweet this post..Thank you. Keep up the good fight.
Marg, can’t blame you for not watching the video, it was repulsive and so was the thought that some people find it entertaining. The Coyotes were here before us, we moved into their territory and I simply don’t see why there should be a bounty on their heads or why they should suffer such horrible deaths. I love to hear Coyotes calling. It soothes my soul.
Coyotes, wolves, any predators. I have small dogs, I hike with one as well, I’m always on the lookout. Those hikers need to be responsible. It isn’t just the coyotes that will take their dogs! Just sayin. I’m not a coyote fan but I’m not into killing them just to do it either. I struggle growing up in livestock country with that whole deal (and same goes for our wolves). I personally, won’t be killing any and I live out in the country where I have a whole pack of coyotes we have to watch for (and my pack of small dogs).
Sherry, I agree, those hikers should be more careful. When my dog was still alive and I lived in Colorado there were locations I would never have taken him because of Mountain Lions in the area and they do attack dogs. So my pup would stay home because I would not risk his life.
Thank you Mia for bringing this to people’s attention. Once again,Man in an attempt to “control nature” and disrupting the food chain misses the point all together and in turn destroying not only the coyote ( who I hold with great respect ) but the whole ecosystem in any given area.
We need to work within and respect nature or it will surly be our own undoing.
On a happier note, Beautiful Photography Mia ! Thank you for sharing it with all of us.
John,
Thanks for visiting my blog and for commenting on this post. I wish the “powers that be” would pay more attention to the fact that by trying to control nature they are screwing up the natural balance. I agree, if we don’t show nature more respect it will be our undoing. Coyotes (and wolves) are often maligned when they are actually only doing what comes natural to them, we have encroached on them not the other way around.
Great post Mia! I think I will pass on watching the video.
I don’t blame you for not watching the video Steve, I still feel revolted two days after watching it.
Mia, I totally agree with you about the senseless killing of coyotes. I also looked at the article you linked to, and the common thread here (as you pointed out) is letting a small dog run off-leash. I have three small dogs myself, and am wary of coyotes in my suburban neighborhood, even when the little ones go out into the fenced backyard. I do not even want to pass large dogs on a walk, because of my fear that they will attack my babies. Unfortunately, many small dogs have no fear or concept of danger. They will bark and run to the larger animals. It is not wise to let them off-leash. It is so tragic to read about the loss of a beloved pet to coyotes, but people just have to be smarter.
Julie, It sounds to me that you are very cautious and careful with your dogs and that is brilliant. Some people do need to be smarter about their pets.