Wildlife Services is a relatively unknown federal agency under the U.S Department of Agriculture. The name of this federal agency certainly sounds benign and even seems to imply a mission of protective services for our nation’s wildlife. Nothing could be further from the truth. The main focus of Wildlife Services is to kill large mammals such as coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions. This is particularly true in the west where ranchers allow their livestock to graze on public land, thereby exposing their livestock to natural predators. Additionally, Wildlife Services culls bird populations near airports and animals the agency deems as pests, such as beavers and prairie dogs. https://harpers.org/archive/2016/03/the-rogue-agency/ Wildlife Services claims their “process” helps reduce human-wildlife conflicts and promotes coexistence, but the thousands of animals they kill each year indicates otherwise.
Of all the mammals that Wildlife Services attempts to eradicate, coyotes are the animals they go after the most. Killing almost one million coyotes within the past decade, a more appropriate name for this agency would be Wildlife Exterminators. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/coyote-america-dan-flores-history-science/ Why should you care? Because these killings are financed by your hard-earned tax dollars. It is estimated that Wildlife Services spends $80 million annually to kill coyotes. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/coyote-america-dan-flores-history-science/ This is money down the drain because coyotes possess a truly amazing ability to quickly repopulate when their numbers have been decimated. Even if you kill 70% of the coyotes in a given area, by the following year, their population will have rebounded back to their original number.
Besides being costly and ineffective, the kill tactics used to eradicate these coyotes are also inhumane and dangerous. Wildlife Services guns coyotes down from helicopters, poisons them using compounds like cyanide that lead to a very painful death, and ensnares them via leghold traps. These traps are so barbaric that they have been outlawed in 80 countries. https://harpers.org/archive/2016/03/the-rogue-agency/ The use of poisons and traps also has the unintended consequence of killing other animals. Given the millions of other mammals and birds that Wildlife Services deliberately kills, it is unlikely that they are concerned with this “collateral damage.”
Instead, the federal government should use non-lethal methods to deter coyote predation. Farmers, for example, use guard animals such as donkeys, dogs and llamas to scare coyotes off. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/wildlife_damage/content/printable_version/coyote_Dec2011.pdf Additionally, use of improved fencing, warning sirens and strobe lights can also discourage coyotes. The estimated cost of lost livestock due to coyote predation is actually less than the amount spent exterminating them. The sheep industry reported an annual loss of $10 million due to coyotes and the cattle industry reports a loss of $47 million. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18911309/ns/us_news-environment/t/coyotes-thriving-big-cities-suburbs/#.W8n84WhKg2w Combined, these numbers are still tens of millions of dollars less than the amount of money spent on killing coyotes. The money currently used to eradicate coyotes, could be used to subsidize farmers and ranchers for lost livestock. Not only would such a program save money, it would be easier to implement, less dangerous, more humane and better for ecosystem health.
Attempting to eradicate coyotes is also bad science, because coyotes provide numerous benefits to the ecosystem. Clever and highly adaptable, coyotes have spread over almost all of North America. It is worth noting that coyotes are now the top dog in most ecosystems because, sadly, humans almost exterminated wolves from the U.S. In the northeast, coyotes help to curb deer overpopulation, which is a good thing as an overabundance of deer causes a whole host of problems. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol4/iss1/2/. Deer over-browse on vegetation, hurting forest growth and plant diversity as well as the animals that depend on those plants. Deer overpopulation is also a factor in the spread of Lyme disease. https://blog.nature.org/science/2013/08/22/too-many-deer/ Additionally, deer cause thousands of car accidents resulting in human fatalities and injuries, not to mention millions of dollars in damages. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/science/too-many-deer-on-the-road-let-cougars-return-study-says.html Coyotes also help to control the populations of other small mammals and rodents. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol4/iss1/2/
You might be wondering why there isn’t more of a public outcry against Wildlife Services. The answer is twofold. The first reason is because most people simply don’t know about them. They are so secretive, that even a U.S. Congressman wasn’t able to get any information about their operations. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160212-Wildlife-Services-predator-control-livestock-trapping-hunting/ Certainly ranchers, the only group in favor of coyote eradication, don’t want you to know about Wildlife Services as this government agency saves ranchers a significant amount of money. In fact, ranchers can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by using public land, in arrangement with the Bureau of Land Management, as the personal feeding ground for their cattle and sheep. Unfortunately, ranchers don’t want to accept any of the risks that come with this arrangement. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160212-Wildlife-Services-predator-control-livestock-trapping-hunting/
The second reason there isn’t more of a public outcry is because there is a huge public misperception about coyotes. People fear coyote attacks, but these fears are unfounded. Coyotes actively try to avoid humans and coyote attacks, which are defined as incidents where the coyote bit or scratched a human, are very rare. On average, there are only 3 reported coyote attacks in the U.S each year. In comparison, there are 3.4 million dog bites. https://www.ucalgary.ca/canid-lab/living-coyotes/educational-information/are-coyote-attacks-rare It is true that coyotes have been known to attack pets, but this can easily be avoided if pet-owners take simple preventive measures. Pet owners should not leave their pet outside chained, nor should they leave pet food outside as this attracts coyotes and makes them less fearful around humans. And of course, people should exercise caution if they know a coyote is in the area. http://petbehavior.org/articles/topics-interest/coyote-inspirational-survivor/
Finally, and most importantly, eradicating coyotes is unethical. Coyotes have as much of a right be in the ecosystem as any other animal. Aldo Leopold, often referred to as the father of wildlife conservation, stated that, “a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” (A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, 224-225). Exterminating coyotes is wrong. Rather than focusing on killing coyotes, we need to learn to live with them. Coyotes are now present virtually everywhere, including suburban and urban areas. Rather than fear them, we should embrace them for the ecosystem benefits they provide. Our goal should not be to eradicate coyotes but rather learn how to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.