This commentary is by Sophie Bowater, of North Middlesex. She is the coalition lead at Vermont Coyote Coexistence Coalition.
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department — and the scientific community at large — recognizes the tremendous value of bobcats, coyotes, foxes and other wild animals labeled “furbearer” predator species on our landscapes.
Ironically, Fish & Wildlife’s hunting and trapping policies do not reflect that.
Instead, their policies feed into a culture of loathing toward predator species, as some hunters and trappers view them as competition over prey species, like deer, turkeys and rabbits, that they want all to themselves to hunt.
Furbearer species are often hunted at night with the aid of thermal scopes, high-tech game calling devices, hunting hounds and bait piles, even on private land and our shared public lands. There are few regulations to protect these animals from unethical and dangerous forms of killing. We must rely on the Legislature to address this, since Fish & Wildlife seems content to keep hunters and trappers happy.
There is a bill, H.132, that would prohibit the hunting of furbearer species using bait. Hunting using bait is already illegal for hunting bears, deer, moose and other wildlife, and it’s time that prohibition extends to other hunted species. Not only does baiting violate the fair chase ethics of hunting, but it also spreads disease, sickens our pets who feed off the bait and habituates wildlife to human landscapes, causing conflicts with people.
Fish & Wildlife asks the public not to feed wildlife, but meanwhile it is legal to feed/bait wildlife for the purpose of hunting. This seems very contradictory.
There are numerous studies that warn of the dangers of baiting wildlife. One review of multiple studies states, “Large concentrations of wildlife activity centered around feeding or baiting sites have been widely implicated as a major mechanism influencing inter- and intra-specific transmission of infectious diseases.”
Hunting over bait piles has also resulted in at least three dogs, over the past few years, who were mistaken for coyotes and shot and killed by predator hunters in Vermont. There’s likely more tragedies that we don’t know about.
Allowing this form of hunting encourages bad actors and signals to the public that these wild animals don’t matter — but they do.
Foxes and coyotes are top predators of white-footed mice, which are the primary hosts for the bacteria that causes lyme disease. Many people resort to using toxic rodenticides to address rodent problems when we should be relying on foxes, bobcats, coyotes and other furbearer species to manage rodent populations.
Herbivorous mammals like groundhogs might otherwise overpopulate without the presence of furbearer species. In addition, unlike prey species like deer, furbearer species like bobcats and coyotes do not overpopulate.
There really is not one good reason to hunt them at all. To hunt them over bait piles is simply an abomination. Please support H.132.
