A woman was greeted with this sight of coyote carcasses outside a Tim Horton’s drive-thru in Saskatoon last Sunday. Coyote warnings have been raised and the public is encouraged to stay away from the animals and contact authorities if they see one, then what? The trapper is called in, they survey the area and set traps where the animal is most likely to be when it is most likely to be there.
My problem with this is the inhumane way many coyotes are trapped, leg snares are incredibly painful and greatly injure an animal caught in one, sometimes they cut clean through the poor coyote’s leg…. sorry for that image. The professional trappers in the GTA supposedly use humane ways to trap using infrared cameras and better bait. Once they catch the dogs, they euthanize them with CO2 gas. I don’t care what anybody says, that’s not humane, they might as well put them all in a shower room and gas them like Hitler did. Yes, coyotes are a risk to farmer’s and their crops or livestock, even in the case of a city, little pets and children are at risk but these are wild animals and we are intruding on their native territory.
I would suggest moving the coyotes to more rural areas or the wilderness, humanely and without causing injury to them, but coyotes make money; everything from the pelt to the meat can be purchased, and they are. The trapper’s get to keep whatever profit they make from the coyote carcass so it becomes their way of life and they count on coyote sightings to make their living. Coyote’s may be a ‘nuisance’ to us but whatever ecosystem they come from, they are vital there and if we take them away we slowly take away part of the sustainability for that ecosystem.
Laura Ω 