This commentary is by Dan Galdenzi of Stowe, a wildlife activist.
Right now in Montpelier, legislation is being proposed that addresses some of the darkest behaviors left over from a bygone era that still takes place today in Vermont.
Bill H.172 seeks to ban the use of leghold and body gripping kill traps and the hounding of bears. Bill H.411 seeks to ban the wanton waste of wildlife, which means that you must use the animal for its meat or pelt and not just kill it for no reason.
Vermont is a special place in this country. We have been the leaders on so many forward-thinking ideas. I talk with work colleagues from across the country, and the world, who have such a positive image of what Vermont is and what we stand for.
As one the smallest states in the country, in terms of population, we punch above our weight nationally on many important issues. But not on animal welfare. We certainly stand out, but for the wrong reasons.
There was a national outcry, and rightly so, about the horrible slaughter of wolves recently in Wisconsin. Bloodthirsty killing of entire families of wolves simply for recreation, motivated by fear and misinformation.
We don’t have wolves in Vermont anymore because they were killed off by man long ago, for the same ignorant reasons they’re being killed in Wisconsin today. We do, however, have their very close relative, the Eastern coyote, who shares its DNA with both Eastern and gray wolves.
And what we do to coyotes here in Vermont is worse than what happened to the wolves of Wisconsin. And it happens here 365 days a year, day and night. They are chased by radio-collared hounds and pursued on snowmobiles. They are lured with bait and mating calls, then shot ruthlessly with high-powered rifles and semiautomatic assault weapons. Pregnant mothers, entire family units, even pups. They’re hung from trees and poles as trophies. Their carcasses are stacked like logs and photographed for social media likes.
Sadly, there is no shortage of photographs on Vermonters’ social media pages to prove this.
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is complicit in this behavior. Why? First, its fear of losing more hunters. As the number of hunters continues its inevitable slide and the revenue from hunting licenses along with it, department officials turn a blind eye to what they call “a few bad apples.”
Second, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and its board is rife with cronyism and nepotism. They exist in an echo chamber of information from a time long gone. They believe views on hunting and trapping haven’t changed since the 1950s, even though survey after survey proves otherwise.
There are three things you can do to make change happen.
1. Contact your legislators and tell them you support bills H.172 and H.411.
2. Consider posting your land. Post it by permission only if you’d prefer, so at least you know who is on your property and what they are hunting. But posting your land is the only way to prevent unethical hunters from killing coyotes (and bears and bobcats) for their recreation.
3. Talk about unethical hunting with your neighbors and family. Draw a clear distinction from ethical sustenance hunting. These are not the same things.
Time is running out for the well-being of our environment and our wildlife. We have to stop normalizing cruelty to animals that’s passed off as “tradition.” As a country of laws, the only way for us to stop these bad actors is to pass legislation to make it illegal.
