[T]he state’s Fish and Wildlife Board voted against a petition Wednesday night to end the open season on coyotes.
In Vermont and many other states, there’s an open season on coyotes, meaning anyone with a hunting license can kill them at any time of the year.
A group of Vermont Law School students submitted the petition to the Fish and Wildlife Board to close the hunting season from March to October.
Closing the season during spring and summer, when coyote pelts are not valuable, would cut back on “wanton killing” of coyotes, they say.
Cydnee Pence, a Vermont Law School student who co-chairs the Animal Legal Defense Fund, said that the open season impacts coyote family dynamics. Disruption of the social hierarchy of the pack can lead to behavioral problems, such as overagression of younger coyotes, according to the petition.
The state enacted a ban on coyote contests last year, after the bill passed the Legislature and Gov. Phil Scott let it become law without his signature.
“But so long as you don’t call (coyote killing) a contest, it’s OK,” she said.
Some members of the public who spoke in support of the petition during the meeting referred to it as a “compromise” between coyote hunters and animal advocates who oppose coyote hunting entirely.
Diana Hansen, of Craftsbury, described an incident last winter in which a hunter and hounds came into her backyard, damaging her greenhouse and horrifying her children as the dogs “mauled” a coyote.
“The violence and disrespect my family endured was deeply traumatizing and my children could not understand why anyone would cause so much suffering to a wild animal,” she said, visibly shaken.
Louis Porter, commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, said in an interview Thursday that wardens had investigated the incident but determined no violation occurred as property damage is a civil matter. There is no law against hunting dogs entering a property unless the land is posted.
“I have a lot of sympathy for what the landowner went though and frankly this is the kind of incident that is very damaging to hunters,” he said.
Both the VLS petition and an opposing one each had over 10,000 signatures online.
Mike Covey, president of the Vermont Traditions Coalition, presented the opposing petition to the board, saying the animal advocates’ compromise was actually a “take” from coyote hunters.
Vermont has a regulated coyote trapping season from the fourth Saturday in October until the end of December. A closed coyote season would still allow the killing of coyotes that were getting into livestock or posing a safety threat.
Kim Royar, state wildlife biologist, said during a board presentation that coyotes did not come to Vermont until the 1940s, after wolves were eradicated.
The open season on coyotes stems from a time when they were considered “vermin,” according to a 2018 Fish and Wildlife Department report. While coyotes have an ecological function as a predator, they still can attack livestock and, less frequently in Vermont than in more populated states, harass pets or children.
The department estimates that there are around 7,500 coyotes in Vermont, though that number fluctuates seasonally, with fewer in the winter.
“Coyotes are very adaptable to hunting pressure, they adjust their breeding,” Porter said in an interview. “We are very confident that coyote populations are very healthy throughout Vermont.”
Royar said that the department, which does not support closing the coyote season, would recommend changes to a hunting season if they thought it were “risking the population.” She said the heightened focus on hunting regulations distracts from bigger threats to wildlife populations, like habitat loss and climate change.
“Every few months now, we have another topic that’s creating polarization,” she said.
Board members debated whether closing the coyote hunting season would impact the behavior of unethical hunters, whose actions are magnified by social media.
“I feel like bad hunter behavior is responsible for the polarizing emotions that we have,” said Johanna Laggis, board member for Caledonia County, “… too bad we can’t legislate the use of social media, but we can’t.”
Dave Fielding Jr., board member for Bennington County, said the state is “underwriting” bad behavior by not further regulating coyote hunting.
The board ultimately voted 9-3 to deny the petition.
Brenna Galdenzi, president of advocacy group Protect Our Wildlife, which has been sparring with the department over hunting regulations, said in an interview after the meeting that the board members who voted in the minority made an effort to “reach across the aisle.”
Galdenzi said her group and other animal advocates, will continue to advocate in the Legislature next session for a bill that would ban so-called “wanton waste” of animals. The bill, H.357, prohibits hunters, trappers and anglers from failing to salvage meat or fur from wildlife they have killed.
