by Janet A. Ginsburg

In 2005, the last year for which there are available records, the USDA’s Wildlife Services division killed over 72,000 coyotes to protect livestock out West. It was a fairly typical year.

Nearly 6,000 were caught in leg-hold traps. Another 12,000 in neck-snares. About 9,700 were shot on the ground, while 27,000 were gunned down from the air. Cyanide-laced land-mines called M-44s took another 11,500. And 47 died from chomping on a sheep’s collar loaded Compound 1080, a Nazi-era poison and one the most potent toxins around. The rest died from an assortment of other versions of trapping, shooting and poisoning.

Whether it did any good is an issue of heated debate. Coyotes account for less than quarter of 1% of all cattle losses (0.18% ); and about 3% of sheep losses. According to one study, there is no correlation between the number of coyotes killed and the number of lambs lost.

Although USDA targets other predators, the coyote is, by far, Wily Enemy #1, with tens of millions slaughtered over the years. Ironically, all this bloodshed may only have succeeded in making the coyote “problem” worse. Like wolves, only an alpha pair and occasionally a beta pair mate when a population is stable. But under severe hunting pressure, everybody mates, mates younger and has larger litters. In effect, the more coyotes you kill, the more you get: An evolutionary adaptation designed to cope with the constant threat of wolves -- the coyotes’ main natural predator -- has gone off the rails. No one really knows what would happen if the USDA stopped the killing  and local coyote populations were given a chance to stabilize. But it is possible that along with more vigilant husbandry (sheep, bred to be wooly, docile and dumb are routinely left unguarded to graze), the situation would reach a tolerable state of detente within a few years.

Critics point out that in addition to being ineffective and expensive, lethal predator control also raises homeland security issue because of poisons used. According to a petition organized by a coalition of environmental groups, USDA’s own Inspector General found that lax inventory control “could lead to the theft or unauthorized sale of these ‘dangerous biological agents.’” The petition is now in the hands of the EPA. (click here to read more about the petition and related links)