WARDSBORO-I agree, we do need facts.
Have you heard of CWD (chronic wasting disease)? It's a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects deer, elk, and moose. It is prevalent out west but unfortunately making its way towards Vermont, having been spotted in New York and Pennsylvania.
And as we know as a fact, it's essential to have a healthy predatory wildlife so they can cull the weak and diseased - and, yes, sometimes Bambi - but we are not here to play with feelings and emotions, are we?
So the point here is that coyotes should be viewed as allies to the hunters, ensuring the health of the deer population.
Another fact here that has been shown in many studies is that killing coyotes for population control does not work and proves to actually do the exact opposite. What it does is increase the coyotes' reproduction rates, naturally pushing them to breed at an earlier age and have larger litters! And that is a scientific proven fact!
As a personal observation, we had a trapper in our area for years. During those years, we saw an unnatural resurgence of rodents in our area, particularly voles. They were everywhere in the garden, and we couldn't grow any root crops (carrots, beets, potatoes) without having the crop totally decimated.
So, no - not all Vermonters benefit from trapping. It's just the opposite!
Katerine Aubry
Wardsboro
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