The Voice of the Independent Flockmasters

Sept. / Oct. 2013

ABATEMENT STRATEGIES PART I

Coyotes are smart enough to acclimate to and defeat all of these methods, even when they’re all operating at the same time. That’s unusual, but it happens.As I was writing a recent aritcle for sheep! I realized our problems are very often political: Rural people often have proven safe solutions to problems, which we’re politically banned from using.

Writing to senators and congressmen normally gets me a “We share your pain,” (or similar) return form letter. I hope your politicians treat you with more consideration. Elected officials fear the appearance of hostility to craftily-titled bureaucracies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whose very name evokes safeguarding our lives and property. Yet appeals for new or renewed uses of proven technologies in controlling dangerous predators go totally nowhere with the EPA. Even if fellow bureacracies make the requests, unless endangered species are involved, the requests are denied or red-taped to death.

EPA’s attitude is: “Tough-it’s the flockmaster’s fault that predators are eating his sheep, accept it.” In many ways, America’s entire rural heritage is threatened, just as the lives and cultural existance of Native Americans are threatened. Whether our antagonists have good intentions or not, the result for ancient and honorable rural trades has been (and is) a slow slide into extinction: It’s a forced oblivion, by way of eroding freedoms recognized in U.S. Constitution. In this article and the next, I’ll lay out some useful strategies to help growers stop a chronic severe predator control problem.

Preliminary Observation

Here are some useful first steps to take: Determine that the problem is coyotes, not dogs or humans. Humans an make a kill site look like coyotes were the culprits. Black bears, bobcats , and mountain lions are starting to show up everywhere now. Consider them, too.

Take a deep breath, control the rage, and begin a strategy to fit the situation. Look at the kill site, conditon of the carcass, amount of meat eaten, and study the tracks and direction of the coyote’s approach and entry points.

Consider the time of year, weather factors, and coyote biology status (denning time, pup-raising, each winter’s food crisis, etc.). Follow the tracks in mud or snow to where they entered the property. Identify their approach trails, road crossings, water

crossings, and “pinch” points in vegetation and crops. Identify their vulnerable spots, where they spend the most time. These spots are sometimes miles away from the kill site. Once located, mark the spots on a map. Coyotes will return to them and use them again and again.

Choose a control method based on which tool will give the highest probability of catching and/or eliminating the beast. Lock up the dogs before and as long as the control tools are placed. I hesitate at having to write the next section, as most Americans were raised to believe the rule of law is just.

Our public schools now take that a step further and indoctrinate students to believe regulations are as morally just as law, and unquestioningly to be obeyed. If a regulation has the force of law they say, it’s law and you must obey it.

Manifestly that isn’t quite accurate. Today there is surging popularity for

civil disobedience, such as we see among the “Occupiers” and “99 Percenters”. These jolly activists never tire of proving folks can get away with breaking rules, thoughthere’s always a risk they’ll get punished when caught, if the regulations happen to be the ones being selectively enforced by partisan administrations. Regulations (even some laws!) are from time to time ruled immoral, unjust, and unethical. Some regulations are even found illegal when weighed against well-established precedent. Regulations are from time to time struck doewn as direct or indirect “takings” of property, or “takings” of the owner’s enjoyment and use of property. Such “takings” are expressly banned by the U.S. Constitution’s 5th Amendment: “No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or pursuit of property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”

sites and urinate, roll, and defecate around them. Foothold traps often work there.

Set three to four seperate sets, 10 to 20 yards apart so more than one coyote and/or skunk can be caught and still have traps working. Setting traps at the remains of the carcass is a good strategy if done skillfully. If not done properly, the catch will be raptors, crows, and opossums.

Under many circumstances, get out the Crit’R Call or electronic caller and try calling coyotes and shooting them. Make sure the firearms are up to the job. Take a backup shooter and plan for more than one coyote showing up. Pick the right time and place. Track the coyotes out from the kill to get their direction.

Drive around and look for good candidate locations like woodlots, sloughs, and creek bottoms, where the coyotes will reset for the day. These are good places to set up for successful calling.

Try to ascertain what time the coyotes are killing, and set up an ambush for them. Digital trail cameras are good for this purpose. Use spotlights or predator hunting lights to provide an advantage during hunting hours. This is often effective around lighted feedlots and lambing pens. Don’t miss!

The Job At HandRegardless of the methods chosen, put the coyote control tools to work immediately. I usually start with No. 4 Gregerson neck snares set in fence crawl-unders and in vegetation on trails through the taller crops. Set where there are fresh tracks. Check sheep! issues November/December 2003 to September/October 2004 for specific instructions on using snares. Crit’R Call sells a great instruction book on snaring.

Always set out lots of snares. Set them close to the kill site and at one quarter mile, one-half mile, and 1-mile distances from the kill sites. When spaced out away from the kill sites, the coyotes don’t show the degree of caution they do close to their mischeif. Set foothold traps: activate your “old tire” traps sets [see sheep! January/February 2009] near or even at the kill site. Coyotes will revisit old kill

Discreet Chemical ControlIf M-44’s are available (more likely west of the Missouri River), set four of them roughly 20 yards away from the kill site in a half-moon-shaped placement on the upside of the wind so the M-44 baid odor is carried across the kill site. See sheep! May/June 2009 and July/August 2009 issues for specific info on setting M-44’s, Coyote Getters, or Grubstakers. M-44s, if available, should also be set near fence crawl-unders and other places coyotes are staying, before and after other kills. It is more effective to set three or four M-44’s with a variety of baits than to set only one.

By not renewing the approval of the highly effective Coyote Getter, the EPA essentailly ended its continued sale in the U.S. in favor of the less effective more problematic M-44. The main difference in these tools is the former uses a pyrotechnic predacide dispenser while the latter uses a powerful spring instead, which is more prone to jams, rust, and other fouling.That action is an example of how federal agencies developed an elaborate system of withholding program funding and services in order to enforce their dictates. For example, unfunded mandates in EPA regulations make development of new predacides and methods so expensive and complicated that they are in reality not possible.

Another example: A similar bureaucracy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) teams up with the EPA from time to time to officially rule what creatures are and are not “threatened” and “endangered.” Then one or both agencies lower the boom on agriculture, depening on what beetle or salamander is selected.Then, to protect that creature, they publish “proposed” over-the-top land-use rules . Landowners thus lose the use of their own land, no matter how the process temporarily ends. Of course, the USFWS can always reopen the issue and take more. So can the EPA.

The Nuremburg Trials after WWII determined with certainty that it’s not moral to obey immoral laws. In fact, citizens learned they have an obligation to disobey immoral laws. Lots of Nazis properly were hanged as a result of this court decision. It could be well argued that the EPA has on natural, organic, biodegrable products like strychnine and Compound 1080 or even their bans on most cyanide use for controlling predators are indirect “takings” of the landowners’ use of private property and therefore, immoral.

Regardless, it’s obvious if a person gets caught using these predacides he’ll suffer EPA penalties, which are severe. In fact, they’re very severe-overkill-out of all proportion to the offense.Holding the opinion that the EPA is the wrongdoer of course won’t help civil disobedience enthusiasts: EPA has its own in-house justice system and court. It’s their job to force regulations onto society, not to protect Americans from environmental problems-problems like too many coyotes. And EPA is, needless to say, “infallible” when it comes to environmental dogma. Be wise: Don’t involve your family, friends, or employees in predator control that could be affected by contradictory regulations or that could lead to official complications. Why provoke antagonism where none exists?

Combining Control Procedures

It’s usually more effective to use several methods to stop coyote predation than to use just one. After the equipment is set, observe it from a distance at least once a day, usually early in the day. Generally it takes an average of three days before the first coyote is caught. Don’t be impatient. Keep the equipment in place for at least 10 days. An effective method used worldwide is the “hole in the wall” strategy. Set up a bait pile of offal, dead animals, roadkilled wildlife, dog food, dead poultry, etc. roughly 100+ yards from a “hide.” The “hide” can be a building, tent, vehicle, or other protected place out of sight and downwind from the bait pile. Set the “hide up so the isiting predators can be effectively shot with a centerfire rifle as they’re feeding on the baits. Sight in the rifle so it is spot-on at the bait pile. String an electric

cord out to near the pile and hook-up an elevated 40-watt bulb on a rheostat that can be controlled from the “hide.” Use this light to aid in precise shooting.

Let the coyotes or other predators feed on the bait pile for three to seven days before starting the coyote shooting. Generally, coyotes feed from dark until 11p.m. and again from 3a.m. to dawn. Get into the “hide” before dark and wait until you hear or see they are on the bait pile. Slowly get the gun ready, and then slowly turn up the light with the the rheostat until there is sufficient light to shoot. An accurate rifle with a good quality 2.5 to 4-powered scope that collects a lot of light is essential for this work.When a coyote is shot, leave it and remain in the “hide “ for several hours. Often the coyote’s mate and pups will show up so they can be taken too.

I have had friends who set up their bait so they can shoot from the toilet throne. Platforms constructed on wagons or pick-ups, so they are portable, work also. Successful bait piles will be eaten up quickly. Start another one several miles away and move to it when the first bait pile is abandoned. Snares set up around these bait piles are great secondary back-up to the shooting strategy.

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Volume 34 #5

The Voice of the Independent Flockmasters

Sept. / Oct. 2013