The Press Herald recently published a story about a Connecticut hunter who killed two German shepherds, thinking they were coyotes. They were, in fact, two beloved pets whose owners had been looking for them for weeks. They were killed with a crossbow, a weapon that causes massive internal bleeding resulting in death.

The dogs are mourned by their heartbroken owners, just as we’d do if they’d been part of our family.

Coyotes have families, too, but the hunting and trapping of coyotes is legal in Connecticut, just as it is here in Maine. Despite the opinion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that “coyotes are a keystone species, meaning that their presence or absence has a significant impact on the surrounding biological community,” coyotes continue to be mercilessly attacked and killed in our state year round, even at night. They’re shot over bait, held fast in traps until they are executed, ripped apart by packs of GPS-equipped hounds.

Unlike other animals in Maine, coyotes currently have almost no protection under the law and no limit to how many can be hunted, particularly during spring and summer, when killing them leaves their pups to starve to death in their dens.

It’s time we take a closer look at how we treat these animals. Past time.

Don Loprieno
Bristol