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Post by Timber Butte Outdoors on Feb 3, 2015 9:28:29 GMT -7
We as coyote hunters and callers, need to unite and put a stop to the anti-hunter crap that is going on in our country. All sportsmen and women, start fighting back against the stupid rhetoric that these people spew everyday. If they don't like what we do, then go and leave us alone. We don't go after them for their QUESTIONABLE lifestyles. They have chosen to live in the city, keep your noses in the city!! Stay out of the countryside, we have a way of life you have no understand of! Nor! could you ever understand! This is a "CALL To Arms!! It is time to stand and fight, get right in their faces and tell them what we think!! www.grandviewoutdoors.com/articles/5435-hunting-groups-arizona-convention-draws-fire-over-coyotes#sthash.4miUTduY.TeUSKlrH.dpbs |
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Eric Mayer
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Post by Eric Mayer on Feb 11, 2015 7:31:10 GMT -7
On the same note, here is a thoughtful response that was published in the local Arizona papers:
February 02, 2015 6:30 PM:
I have 54 years of dealing with the wonderful and resourceful coyote in nearly every situation one can imagine. I am a retired federal coyote control specialist.
I am the one that removed the “Biting Coyote of Green Valley” years ago. Unprovoked, that single coyote bit eight innocent citizens. It was not rabid.
I have a college degree, I have a family, I have been a professional administrator and business owner for 40 some years, too. I am a public speaker, author, I write a regular column for a shooting publication, and was a television host years ago. I am not a boozer or a crazed killer as coyote hunters are being portrayed. So I speak to you from a great deal of “hands on,” level-headed experience and credibility with the marvelous coyote. I hope all recognize and respect that.
The coyote is a professional killer. They kill and eat everything for a living. I have first-hand experience that they are a threat to pets, livestock, birds, young wild animals, children and grandchildren, adults and crops to say the least.
Control, not extermination, is required to keep them in check. Humans are part of nature’s balance, too. Of course, humans make mistakes — both ways — with too much control and not enough control. A balance is necessary on all fronts.
This is the great American predator, the coyote, who is a tough one to fool even with all the night vision, electronic gadgets, semi-auto firearms, GPS devices, radios, fancy trucks and more. They are the ultimate survivor for sure. Coyote calling is not easy in any way. It is a learned skill, one you must practice often, too. The coyote gets smarter and adapts daily. I have the highest respect for them.
I started chasing coyotes in 1960 in Kansas and I have seen and learned a great deal about the very intelligent coyote. Arizona needs coyote enthusiasts who are pursuing a legal activity that helps keep coyote populations in check in a small way. These are simply enthusiasts that gather, talk, share stories, teach other enthusiasts, and develop friendships — not a plan for mass murder.
The Predator Masters event (“Hunting convention irks animal advocates,” Feb. 1) is nothing but a convention on predator hunting. Nothing more.
As I do, you must know that Project Coyote and Defenders of Wildlife recently have announced a combined effort to ban all sport hunting of coyotes nationwide. Beware of the real motive here!
Groups gathering like the Predator Masters are not drunken hunters piling into the back of a 4X4 truck laughing, yelling and shooting at anything that moves. These are responsible licensed, trained, respectful, responsible citizens including, families, brothers, fathers and sons, grandpa and grandson, mom and dad, mother and daughters, and best friends enjoying time with others who have a passion for a particular type of legal hunting.
Arizona is approximately 114,000 square miles. Across the West coyotes average about 1 per square mile, so that is about 114,000 coyotes in Arizona. New Mexico estimates it has 120,000 coyotes, and hunters and trappers remove about 10,000 coyotes or 8 percent per year. California with more than 163,000 square miles claims its coyote population is 700,000 or 4.2 coyotes per square mile. California has the highest number of human biting incidents in America, too.
Coyotes move into Tucson because the rural areas can be overpopulated with coyotes and it is easy pickins.
Before anyone criticizes this legal hunting, they should learn much more about it and the amazing and dangerous coyote.
They are not dogs and do not wag their tail when they see you. They are dangerous.
EM - Republished with permission from the author: James A. Schmidt II of Dragoon is a retired federal coyote control specialist for the USDA in Arizona. Contact him at coyotejs1@powerd.net
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Post by broper on Feb 11, 2015 18:57:05 GMT -7
This should be posted on Face Book so our non-hunting "friends" can see it.
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Eric Mayer
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Post by Eric Mayer on Feb 12, 2015 6:58:03 GMT -7
I've spoken with the author via email and he has given permission for it to be posted anywhere it may do some good. My only request would be to leave his email out on Facebook. Although he didn't seem to mind it being there, I think the FB crazies are at a different level of nuttiness compared to most.
Eric
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