Can you believe this??? Bounties(in the form of Gasoline purchases) are being paid to "yahoos" by Maines' Dept of Wildlife to provide optimum incentive in limiting Coyote Populations.............The Professionals in the Maine Fish and Wildlife Services know that killing coyotes only leads to there being more coyotes as larger litters almost always spring up where human persecution of Songdogs occurs.........Even the so-called hunters below acknowledge that Coyotes are not the primary limiting agent of the bloated deer herds of Northern Maine............Harsh Winter weather and maturing post Clear Cut Woodlands are also again reducing viable habitat for deer.................Deer that historically were not present in Northern Maine 1500 to 1880 when Wolves and Cougars were pursuing Moose and Caribou Upstate...................And GPS and dogs entering the hunt hardly(in my mind) qualify under "Fair Chase" criteria or a "mutual participation Sporting Event" as Dina Giacomo describes in his article that follows "CHASING WILY COYOTES

Chasing wily coyotes

Hunters are trying to thin the ranks of the coyote population in the hope it benefits Maine's deer.

By Deirdre Fleming
THORNDIKE - Five dogs, nine hunters, 12 hours: and only a half-dozen empty tanks of gas to show for it.

click image to enlarge

Mike Corson listens to baying bloodhounds in the woods of Thorndike on May 21 as he hunts coyotes with the Knox Ridge Coyote Hunters, a loose-knit club.
Photos by Gregory Rec

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A bloodhound sniffs from its dog box in the back of a truck during the hunt. Some dogs are held in reserve in case other dogs get tired.

This is coyote hunting in Maine, a growing activity that is considered one answer to the shrinking deer herd.
Officials at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are so concerned with decreasing deer numbers, and so sure some targeted coyote hunting helps, they're compensating coyote hunters in some areas with gas money.
The hunters in the loosely formed Knox Ridge Coyote Hunters club in Thorndike don't see those gas checks. They hunt coyotes anyway.They focus a concentrated effort on one of the biggest deer wintering yards in the midcoast.That means most every Saturday is spent chasing hounds with GPS collars, driving dirt roads from dawn to dusk, and often coming up empty."It's such a challenge to kill one," said Jason Spencer, who started the group effort seven years ago.
The desire and drive to outwit and shoot dozens of coyotes is not new. But the work of hunting coyotes hasn't gotten any easier, despite advances in GPS technology.Former Kennebec Journal outdoor reporter Gene Letourneau in 1990 wrote about the "first generation" coyote hunters in Thorndike. Several years ago, a younger group took over."He's the master," said Registered Maine Guide Nelson Cole, a coyote hunter for three decades, with a nod toward Spencer."I first started hunting them in '73 to '74," Cole explained. "I saw tracks and didn't know what they were. Since the deer has diminished, we want to hunt them again. Coyote is not 100 percent the reason (for the loss of deer). But it's what we can do."
The coyote is one of just four species in Maine that has no closed season. That means hunters can take a coyote any time, any place, while following standard hunting laws.But how effective coyote hunting is in helping deer survive winter remains a question.The state estimates there are only 12,000 coyotes in Maine. But coyotes can have a litter of six to eight pups, travel huge distances, and are highly adaptable.
Spencer said in Knox Ridge hunters and trappers took 150 coyotes in the past year. At a one-square-mile farm in the area, he said 200 deer were counted this winter, which was an increase from last winter.But does this effort help the deer herd over time?

Wally Jakubas, the state's coyote study leader, isn't sure."The department has always maintained that focused controlled efforts especially around deer wintering areas, if successful, helped deer in a focused effort," Jakubas said. "If you took 150 in a year, and did that repeatedly, I would think that would be enough to keep the population down. It's not an easy thing.Jakubas said the challenge is that eastern coyotes are resilient, resourceful, and efficient. While hound dogs track them at a run following a scent that will spread across a wide swath, the coyote moves in a straight line, trotting to conserve energy.

The work of coyote hunting, even with trained hounds, as the Knox Ridge team proved on May 21, is exhausting.Four hours into the hunt, as two dogs grew weary and slow, Spencer sent his "Mixer dog" into the field.Spencer got the dog from one of Cole's hunting dogs seven years ago. He trained the dog to focus on coyotes."I spent every day with him for a two years," Spencer said.A huge crate in the back of a pickup truck is opened and the big dog goes wild, wound up as it is for the chase. Mixer runs directly at Spencer who yells, "road, road, road," to the dog, telling it to find the coyote scent on the trail.The dog turns and flies off down the dirt road, followed by two trucks.Four other hunters in trucks help surround a huge wooded, wet area in which the dogs are running, waiting for the hounds to chase the coyote out of the bog. But the GPS handheld devices only show the coyote doing loops. "We look at the (GPS) and see the line it's run before, and we try to head it off. We try to outsmart it. But they're pretty amazing creatures," Spencer says. As he watches Mixer loop back on a previous coyote track, a line marked on the GPS device, Spencer encouraged Mixer from miles away. "Come on, dogs. I know you're doing all you can," he whispers. But four hours later, the coyote has eluded them all. They've been there before. The term wily coyote is more than just a cartoon nickname.

"I think coyotes are really clever," Jakubas said. "There is a thought that all the pressure on the coyote out West was responsible for breeding a super coyote, by natural selection. Some believe in some respects, you're almost making matters worse."
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From The Big Lie (1996) by Dino DiGiacomo


"People who enjoy killing animals have long tried to disguise their barbarity in a cloak of respectability they call “sporthunting.” The fact is, sporthunting does not exist. It never has.

All sports share certain conditions to ensure a sense of fair play and create equal opportunity for all participants. What the animal killers call sport hunting meets none of the conditions of real sports.

"Let’s take a look at some of the criteria that define sport

and why so-called sporthunting fails every one of them.

Willingness to Participate

In any sport, all participants choose to be there. Both boxers want to be in the ring that night, the players on both football teams want to be on the field that day, and both tennis players agree to meet on the court at that time. Sporthunting fails on this point because the animal is never a willing participant.

Knowing When the Contest Will Start

All basketball players are aware of the starting time of the game, giving them time to prepare. Golfers know what time they will tee off. Wrestlers know what time the match will start. They don’t expect their opponent to break into their home and hurt or kill them while they are sleeping or having breakfast with their family, which is what happens to animals because this sporting condition is not met.

Even Chance

All participants are given the same equipment with which to play the game. Both boxers have equally weighted gloves and protective gear, as do football and hockey players. Bowlers are only allowed to throw one ball at a time while all rowers use the same numbers of oars. Sporthunting fails here also because the hunters have airplanes,

automatic weapons, high-powered scopes, steel traps, etc., while the animal has only the equipment it was given at birth.

Equal Prize

The criterion here insures the same prize is awarded to whichever team or player wins the contest. The prize itself may be a trophy, belt or an award, but the commercial and athletic value of that prize is the same for each potential winner. Sporthunting fails miserably on this point because the prize is life itself, but it is not an equal prize. The hunter can only win or draw while the animal can only draw or lose. The hunter wins by killing the animal or draws if the animal manages to escape. Conversely, the animal draws by getting away or loses by being killed. The animal cannot win. Some hunters say that once in a while the animal wins by killing the hunter but that only happens on rare occasions with all the odds stacked against the animal, who is never a willing participant anyway.

I have heard some hunters say that hunting is not about the animals at all. It is, they insist, an awareness of self. Once and for all, let’s not buy into their facade.

Sporthunting is not a sport. It is simply an excuse for unhappy men and women to go out and kill. How do I arrive at the fact they are an unhappy lot? Look around you! Happy people do not take time away from their happiness to go out and kill something.

The real shame is that sporthunters pass this travesty onto their children who will come to believe that killing is a sport."

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