When I read the following statements through the Maine. gov website, I knew this information needed to be available to all residents and outdoor enthusiasts of Maine:

“By continuing the coyote control program, the public may perceive the department implicitly believes the control program has a strong biological basis, when in fact, the biological benefits of coyote control are unknown.”

This implies that the biological harm is also unknown. As does this statement: “ It is not known whether the current snaring program, or other forms of coyote control, has any effect on increasing local or regional deer numbers.”

And this: “The possibility exists that the removal of territorial coyotes may allow non-territorial coyotes into an area, and exacerbate the deer predation problem.”

All of these statements were issued by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) in their 2001 report titled “Feasibility Statements for Eastern Coyote Goals and Objectives.”

This is the latest information available on the coyote control program in Maine and, according to the IFW staff member who wrote this report, is still relevant today.

Coyote control in Maine is facilitated through shooting, trapping, baiting and running down coyotes with dogs. These can be inhumane methods and are not regulated.

It is open season on coyotes year-round in Maine, which means that people hiking through the woods with their dogs are at risk any time of the year, not just during deer hunting season.

This past fall, there were four different cases of domestic dogs being shot and killed near their homes throughout Maine, mistaken by hunters for coyotes.

Coyotes are often blamed for killing too many deer, when in actuality the number of deer that coyotes kill cannot be estimated. And these numbers are probably not as high as the amount of deer that hunters kill each year.

Coyotes are opportunistic feeders, which means that they will eat almost anything that is edible and available.

According to a 2011 study conducted by a University of Vermont graduate student, titled “Food Habits and Foraging Behavior of Coyotes in Vermont,” scat analyses revealed that the majority of a coyote’s diet consists of small mammals, birds, insects, vegetation and human refuse.

They follow a generalist feeding pattern and do not focus on particular species. When coyotes have the strength, opportunity, and pack numbers to take down a deer, the evidence seems to be few and far between.

Though to be fair, who is more deserving of their efforts — the deer hunter, driven mainly by the thrill of the hunt, or the coyote, which must kill in order to survive?

Despite assumptions that coyotes decrease the deer population, there has been no research that proves that coyote control results in larger deer numbers.

According to the Eastern Coyote Institute, when a coyote population is thinned out through the killing of individual members, a survival response actually stimulates their population growth through larger litters and more breeding females. Based on these considerations, the reason for decreasing the number of coyotes is unfounded and the whole process of coyote control could be seen as counterproductive, unless hunters were able to nearly wipe out the entire species.

Through email correspondence with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife staff this past December, the following information was confirmed:

— No permit is required for general hunting of coyotes.

— Hunters are not required to tag any coyotes they kill.

— Of the coyotes that do get tagged, the IFW approximates that at least 2,000 coyotes are killed each year.

— Based on the IFW’s coyote assessment report, about 12,000 to 18,000 coyotes inhabit Maine. This assessment was written in 1999; it is not known how many male versus female coyotes are killed each year.

— It is not estimated how many deer coyotes actually kill.

The other latest report available on the Maine.gov website is titled “Problems and Strategies for Eastern Coyote Management in Maine.” These are some of the problems that are listed:

— Some people have a negative perception of trapping, hunting with dogs, and snaring.

— We do not know whether coyote control is effective in reducing deer winter mortality rates.

— Incidental wildlife may be killed or injured during coyote control operations.

It is important to note that “incidental wildlife” includes bobcats and lynx.

After personally contacting the staff member of the IFW who wrote these coyote reports, I found out that the information stated in the reports, though written more than 10 years ago, is still relevant today. That means no further research has been conducted or analyzed.

This type of coyote control is needless and unregulated and merely serves the purpose of providing financial stability to the IFW rather than an environmentally responsible way to manage wildlife.

The IFW’s motto cannot say that they are stewards of Maine’s wildlife and represent the Maine people if they do not equally uphold the values of all of our state’s citizens, not just those who hunt. Less than 5 percent of the entire population of the United States is registered hunters ( U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “ 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation”), and yet the voices of hunters are often listened to more than nonhunters because they bring in profits.

This is not a fair representation of the population, and this is not fair for wildlife.

We need to make a concerted effort in Maine to conduct responsible and educated management of our coyote population. Please look up the Eastern Coyote Institute online and contact the IFW.

HEATHER BOLINT lives in Damariscotta.

letters@timesrecord.com