Just this week, the Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister announced a new program that will offer a $20 bounty on coyotes killed in the province. The Saskatchewan Coyote Control Program aims to reduce coyote predation on livestock in the province’s agricultural land.
In addition to the $20 bounty on coyotes, the program also provides funding for ranchers to install better fences and obtain guardian animals, and assists the training of Conservation Officers in the responsible use of poison for predator control.
This new coyote control program is an interesting departure from the current mentality in most U.S. states, where bounty programs are frowned upon in the face of political correctness. The program will certainly provide much more incentive for folks to kill coyotes at a time when depressed fur prices have made it difficult to justify such efforts.
I’m anxious to see how the bounty works. One thing to remember about bounties is that their benefits are quick but temporary. If a bounty program works here, it’s likely to have positive effects as long as it is continued. As soon as the bounty program ends, however, the coyote population will likely rebound to pre-bounty levels and will require control once again.
If successful, the bounty model in Saskatchewan could be followed by some U.S. states that have serious problems with coyote populations and their impact on livestock and game animals. One such area that immediately comes to mind is the state of Maine, where exploding coyote populations have severely impacted the state’s whitetail deer herd in the northern and eastern parts of the state. Localized coyote control during critical deer wintering and fawning periods could be encouraged by a bounty, and could provide the temporary relief needed for the deer herd to recover. Maine would have huge hurdles to overcome before implementing such a bounty (finding a funding source and standing up to the anti-hunting community), but many average folks in the state are pushing hard to find ways to recover the deer herd. A bounty could work in other places. I’m just glad to see that Saskatchewan is actually trying it.
Click here to find out more about Saskatchewan’s coyote control program.
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