County might put bounty on Coyotes
Posted by cgmartin on January 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment
More than $435,000 in claims of livestock loss have been submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in the past seven years in Prince Edward County.
Those claims are due to an overpopulation of coyotes but the municipality is hoping to reduce both the number of animals and livestock losses through a $100 bounty. Council will vote on the idea next week but a crowd of approximately 120 people who gathered in Belleville Monday night heard how the program, if initiated, would operate.
Gary Davis, the chief building official and bylaw enforcement officer for Prince Edward County, told the crowd though the numbers are high it wasn’t until last year that council realized there is a coyote problem. Unfortunately, he said, the problem was recognized too late in the year.
“The livestock issue really started to resurface last year,” he said. “It was too late for the 2009 budget because council had already set it but we’re hoping to get it in the 2010 budget.”
In 2009, Davis said, the municipality recorded 142 claims though those claims represent close to 500 kills. Farmers who lose animals to coyotes must be able to present the carcass of their lost animal to receive compensation. If there’s no carcass they receive no money.
“We had one farmer who had a loss of 30 in his herd in two weeks but he couldn’t provide a carcass for one of them,” Davis said.
To combat the problem, the municipality — if council endorses a motion forwarded from the committee of the whole — will ask the Ministry of Natural Resources to allow a $100 bounty on coyotes. The municipality is prepared to set aside $30,000 for the program.
Davis said the municipality has already investigated ways to ensure the bounty is safe and will be regulated to ensure only hunters who have received permission from farmers to hunt on their property will be compensated for a kill. Hunters will have to register with the county and have signed proof from farmers that they are allowed to hunt on their property.
“The county has a high concern that coyotes will be brought in from Tyendinaga or Quinte West and money taken out of county coffers,” Davis said.
Prince Edward County farmer Gary Fox supported Davis’ claim that the coyotes are travelling and hunting in packs. He said he was trying to figure out why he was losing sheep to coyotes when he has a guard dog working in his farm and found the answer when snow fell and he could see tracks on the ground.
“I’ve had about six at a time come through my yard,” Fox said. “I’m losing some damn nice sheep. When I start losing pregnant ewes at this time of year….”
Posted on 19th January 2010 by cgmartin
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