Unlike other animals in Maine, coyotes currently have almost no protection under the law. They can be killed with dogs, traps and any other way you can imagine, day and night. This can be done all year round, without any limits, including spring and summer, when killing them leaves their pups to starve to death in their den.

You may have noticed more singing in late summer and early fall, as this is the time when the coyote parents are allowing their pups to explore their territory a little more on their own. So the parents will stay in touch with their pups by howling. It is heartbreaking to think of pups howling to a parent who is never coming back. I don’t know anyone, including my ethical hunting friends, who believes this is acceptable. I would like to see limits on the year-round killing of coyotes, especially when they are birthing and raising their pups.

As the former director of one of the most popular dog rescues in the state, I cannot imagine that the dog-loving populace does not want this minimal protection for animals that share DNA with the dogs who are best friends to so many of us.

Enacting limits on the year-round killing of coyotes is not only a matter of giving them the same protections from cruelty that we do most other wildlife in our state, but also recognition of the important role they play as predators.

Offering one example here of the valuable role they play in protecting our songbirds, who are in serious decline, zoologist Roland Kays and his colleagues researched the relationship between the coyote’s presence and its effects on safeguarding songbirds from domestic cat predation.

With the assistance of citizen scientists, they found that the coyote’s presence can change domestic cat predation activity. They discovered that cats stayed close to their homes and stayed away from forested areas where coyotes were present. And, as a result, the songbirds there were thriving, Kays and his fellow researchers reported in a 2015 Journal of Mammalogy article.

One of the best parts of this research was that the citizens who participated gained a much better understanding of the coyote’s valuable role of the predator. So many people enjoy the beautiful range of birds here in Maine – should that be negatively impacted so that a minority of the population can kill coyotes year-round, day and night, any way they like to?

Most of us are also aware of the well-documented connections between cruelty to animals and violence toward our fellow human beings. Regulated hunting for food that respects the life of the animal is not the same as unregulated violence for “sport.” However, our current laws regarding coyote killing offer no mitigation of that violence.

If you search Facebook or Instagram for phrases like “Maine Coyote Hunting,” you will quickly see this is true. The photos will turn the stomachs of average Mainers and are there for your children to easily find online. Unlike most similar animal cruelty, which is illegal, they will learn that this year-round violence is perfectly legal. We all worry about the violence our children are exposed to, and Maine parents strive to raise children free of its influence. Isn’t it time then that we place some reasonable limit on the year-round violence to these close cousins of our dogs?

If you agree, I urge you to take a moment to contact your legislators in Augusta and let them know you want to see a limit on the year-round killing of coyotes.