Utah Coyote Bounty?

The Utah legislature allocated a lot of money for coyote control this year with a lot of talk of a $50 bounty. Does anyone know if there really will be a $50 bounty and if so when, how and where it will be administered?

Isn't there a Federal ADC program in Utah? I know that I wanted to get back into it last year (was a govt. trapper for 8 yrs in past), but because of Obama's cuts to federal spending (and with all the money he throws away, it was a surprise that he did cut some programs), he cut trapping positions in Idaho. From talking to a Fed. ADC trapper who just retired, he told me that three of the guys from Idaho were politely asked to retire (all had well over 20 yrs in), and they only replaced one of those positions. It may well be that the Government Trapping Program is on its way out. This will be good new for us as ranchers will be more apt to allow us access to their places to trap. We will most likely have to go after coyotes just to get permission to trap cats, but hey, coyotes will pay the fuel bill, and they do eat cats from time to time, so it would be a win-win for us.

Well, here is a chance to secure our trapping rights in Idaho. Hope we get the voter support to get it passed.

-ridgeback740

Right to life, liberty—and hunting

Idaho voters will have chance to amend Constitution

A proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitution would add language saying that the state will preserve citizens’ right to hunt and that hunting, trapping and fishing would be the state’s preferred methods of wildlife management.


I guess it is time to see who the real minority is in this state, those who wish to destroy it and what it has long stood for, like the many whom moved here to undermine our culture and history. Or those who believe in protecting rights. I believe the radicals are going to find out that even the majority if non-hunters are not anti-hunting.

One thing you can count on is us never passing a law to infringe on your right to leave. If you find it such a waste of time.....don't let the door hit you on the way out. Or, vote no and then accept the outcome of democracy.

Idaho voters will be able to approve or reject the measure on November's ballot. Exact language will be distributed prior to the vote in a sample ballot.

If we had a bounty on coyotes then coyotes like this one would be worth something. In some of the areas that I trap I am only able to skin one out of every six coyotes that I catch because of mange. Kind of makes them like large possums, he even has a possum looking tail. Even with hard winters, some of these old dogs have learned to survive for 3-5 years after they have contracted the mange. They crawl under round bales or go into barns to keep warm during the colder weather. They are very adaptable. This guy had had the mange for several years. His skin is like the leather on you boots.

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That is sad. The do gooders say "Let mother nature take care of the wildlife populations", but this is but one of the ways she does it. Not very humane if you ask me. I'd rather have a bullet to the head than have mange in the winter here in our country.

Nature does take care of things, but she is very cruel. Our coon population starts to get high and along comes distemper and other diseases. The deer numbers were really climbing around here also. This last fall and through the winter EHD has killed most of them off. The older more mature ones died first. A lot of the animals have adapted to some of the diseases, like the coyotes with mange, but most of them just die a slow painful death. They suffer a lot more pain from the diseases, than any piece of steel that is holding them by the foot ever will ever give them.

Bill, this is so very true. I've given a bunch of trapping demos to different groups when I was a Govt. Trapper. I would set a #3N double long spring trap and snap it shut on a pencil and you could hear the gasps from those watching. I would then set the trap again and sit it down on a table and talk some more, (I use my hands to help me talk sometimes using jestures and to expound). I would then make it look like an accident and put my hand into the trap, having it closing on my hand. I'd keep talking and waving my hand around with the trap still on it. I've had people holler and jump up to help me out of the trap and I would tell them not to bother. I would continue talking for a few minutes, then take the trap off my hand. I would show that my fingers are not broken and they all still worked. I would then relate to them the fact that a leghold trap to an animal is much like a set of handcuffs to a human. It is a restraining device and nothing more. If a person fights a set of handcuffs, they will cause slight damage to their wrists much like animals in a trap. I've even had the head person for Oregon Haven Humane Society come up to me later and thank me for educating her on traps. I told her, an ethical trapper is such a huge benefit to wildlife and us humans, but like any profession, you will find a small percentage of those who are unethical. We try to police our own ranks, but there is only so much we can do. Of course when it comes to ethics in a profession, there are always those few that dirty the waters for the rest.

I totally agree with you. Of course I always get a lot more noise out of people that I put cuffs on than animals I have caught in traps.

Well put BIll and Ridge!

Same here. I'm retired from Corrections (12 yrs) and Deputy Sheriff (9.5 yrs). Had a few that didn't like the bracelets on them, but I always told them, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." It didn't help telling them that, but I felt better about listening to them complain. I've had a lot of animals I've caught in leghold traps that I've turned loose and no apparent damage to the foot. Had a dog that was learning disabled and caught him 10 or 12 times before he left this world. He never had a problem with his foot from being caught.

So many times you will see someone on TV kill a peg leg coyote and that dumb butt will say that the coyote lost that foot from being caught in a trap. Most of the peg leg coyotes are caused from the coyotes being shot at by a deer hunter or someone else with a high power rifle. I have seen several three legged deer over my life and it is the same with them. In both species there are more that are missing back legs than front legs. That is because the animals were running away when they were shot at.

I must agree with you on that too, Bill. I've caught a dozen or so peg-leg coyotes and they were missing legs way up high. One I know because it was the only dark (almost black) coyote was wounded by aerial hunting aircraft, and I caught it almost 6 months later. It was healthy and had fat on it. It was missing a back leg.

I've also caught (way too many to say for sure), cats, fox, beaver, muskrats and coyotes that were missing toes. One coyote was missing at least one toe from three of its feet. And if you have a question as to which foot I caught it by, no, I caught it by one of the feet with a missing toe. This coyote I believe was related to a dog I had that had a learning disability.

If you are after a coyote that is a killer of livestock and it is missing a toe or two, it makes it great for targeting it when trapping. You also know when you catch it that the killing should stop.

I still have a few ranches that pay me to trap coyotes, by the coyote. Most of those are because of deer hunting and not livestock. Deer hunters worry more about coyotes than cattle men do… Who would have ever seen that one coming? The last couple of years I have also had cattle men that have had problems with coyotes that I have taken care of their problems. I do enjoy trapping coyotes, but there are other animals that I would rather trap. One of the biggest problems I have with trapping, coyotes around here, is there are very few that are worth skinning. The mange never seems to go away. We have been dealing with it for over 25 years. There are areas where it isn’t as bad as others, but it is always around. It is worse than trapping late season coons that are almost all hard necked.

I believe that I read somewhere in the past few months where a state or the feds (fish and game) had a medication that was aerial dropped for rabies. Why can't they come up with some sort of internal medicine that can cure mange and aerial drop it in areas that are affected like yours? I'd rather see that than some of the spending the govt. has done in the last four years.

The mange isn't that difficult to cure, but each animal has to be treated with a topical medication that is expensive enough for cattle. Most of the public look at coyotes as being a lower life form than we do. I think the majority of the public, landowners, cattlemen, farmers and city people, wouldn’t mind if the coyotes went extinct. Part, not all, of these same people are responsible for reintroducing the wolves. People are strange in how they think and what they believe. Coyotes are a big part of the western part of America and they do play an important role in the ecosystem. They are very adaptable to where ever they live and they are like cock roaches or attorneys, they will survive regardless of what Mother Nature throws at them. In 1975 I was trapping 30 miles from Fairbanks Alaska and I caught a coyote in a lynx set. At that time, no one had seen a coyote in the interior of Alaska. Now it probably isn’t that big of a deal to catch a coyote in that area. When you look at treating coyotes for the mange, the public would rather put a bounty on them and try and wipe them out.

I read tonight were Wisconsin and possibly Minnesota will get a wolf season this coming fall. They are going to charge $10 to apply for a license to take wolves and the license will cost $50 for residents and $250 for non-residents. They are going to allow the following take methods: hunt with Firearms, bows, cross bows, foothold traps, dogs and electronic calls. You will also be able to use bait, but not sure what the restrictions will be on the bait. Times are changing thats for sure.