photo by John Tangney

WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP
WITH THE WILD?

Relationships are always expressed in our behaviors….and so our lives can be filled with rich, life enhancing relationships, or they can be filled with emptiness expressed in hatred and violence to other life.

As a biologist, I seek to share life enhancing relationships between our humanity and our wild ones…and when I write, these are always what I speak of. But today I share a link with you, where you can look through a dark window into the lives of those who freely choose the emptiness born out of violence.

It is my purpose in showing you this link because we often do not know what we want, until we experience or see what we do NOT want. 

I remember giving a presentation on Coyote in one of our rural communities, pointing out the “hunting laws” in Maine regarding Coyote. One point I brought up was that individuals are free to use “hunting” dogs to run coyotes to exhaustion, and then have the dogs kill coyote. A young man  raised his hand, and in disbelief said, “That doesn’t happen here in Maine, Does it?  I didn’t need to answer him because another community member across the room called out “It sure does!” The young man’s question of disbelief was also his expression of “how can we be allowing this to happen?”

So when you are watching this short link, please note the look on the young Coyote’s face…..I read it as “Why are you doing this to me?” Also I wish to point out to you how these individuals stood by and encouraged their dogs to attack Coyote…..note that pleasure on their faces. What is the relationship to wildness here…..wanting to control….control…act in violence toward wildness….fear of wildness….so wishing to torture and destroy what they fear? 

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNbVdsJY_U4

“There will come a day when such men as myself will view the slaughter of innocent creatures as horrible a crime as the murder of his fellow man … Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature and its beauty.”  Albert Einstein

YOUR TASK ~ IS TO CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR AND TELL THEM OF THE WORLD YOU WANT TO HAND DOWN TO YOUR CHILDREN…..YOU WANT PROTECTION OF OUR COYOTES FROM THIS HUMAN VIOLENCE AND PERSECUTION.

photo by Jacques Tournel

IMAGINE, IF YOU WILL. THE EXCRUCIATING AGONY AND TERROR OUR DOMESTIC DOGS EXPERIENCE WHEN THEY ARE CAUGHT IN THE BARBARIC DEVICE OF A STEEL LEGHOLD TRAP……..

AGAIN….this just happed here in southern Maine when a 74 year old man’s dog experienced this.  What if this happened to your dog? Here is the link:

Maine hunter forced to shoot his trapped dog

Look at this photo of Coyote…America’s Wild Dog. Coyote’s legs and paws and muscle and tendons and nerves and blood are like those of our dogs…..they suffer as our dogs due….unbelievable pain and terror.

So why do we here in Maine tolerate this truly barbaric activity ?

What does this say about our humanity that we allow this suffering…..

“It is the people who must save the environment [the animals]

It is the people who must make their leaders change.

And we cannot be intimidated

So we must stand up for what we believe in.”

Wangari Maathai

Coyote Pups photo by George Gove

Not long ago, I read a comment spoken by Dan Ashe, Director of our Federal Fish and Wildlife service in Washington. This is what he said ~ “Chimps are one of the world’s iconic species because of their CONNECTIONS AND SIMILIARITY TO HUMANS.”

READ THAT AGAIN….   BUT WHAT CONNECTIONS AND WHAT SIMLITARITIES?  I want to speak of one in particular here….

Are they the only ones….by no means! Wild beings who live  complex social lives, like we do, have the same capacity to experience the joy of companionship and family life, and the grief of their loss as well.

So Coyotes because of their social nature are especially vulnerable to mourning and grief. Those of you who have dogs, I’m sure have experienced their grief personally yourselves. Below are two links where our domestic canines are expressing grief and mourning, and honoring their dead. Coyotes do the same….you just don’t see this very private part of their lives. Here is the first ~

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/dog-cries-owner-grave-wiley-video_n_3156141.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Here is the second~

www.eonline.com/news/433463/dog-buries-puppy-in-viral

Yes, the wild ones have this same capacity for grief and honoring their dead, and they also have the capacity for play and happiness, that those of you who share your lives with your dogs, get to experience every day.  So the following link gives you a rare glimpse into that joyful, intelligent play of our wild dog, Coyote~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vwD7KU1SkJY

So then…..what about our human behavior to them? Why do we tolerate the lack of their protection from human violence and cruelty? So what happens to the little coyote pups you see above when their parents are  cruelly killed just for sport? 

“Midnight Orphan” by Kathleen Fox

This poignant watercolor by Maine artist, Kathleen Fox was inspired by her own personal experience of catching sight of a starving small Coyote pup alone in the forest at night.

And why was this  small Coyote pup there alone without the protection of his parents…..his parents were killed at a time in the pup’s life when he needed them for his survival.

And why were his parents killed….because they were Coyotes….and there is NO PROTECTION for Coyotes in Maine.   Because there are NO LAWS in Maine to control the human behavior of those individuals who seek recreation by killing this important carnivore…..many coyote pups that will be born this Spring, will be orphaned long before they are able to survive on their own. They will die, suffering from starvation.

A short time ago I read an article in which one of these individuals expressed why he loved “the sport” of killing Coyotes.  These are two of his reasons ~ He likes the “challenge” of “outsmarting them…it’s enjoyable” and “I enjoy it because it is me against them”

SO IT IS FUN…IT IS A CHALLENGE….IT IS A SO CALLED SPORT. GOING OUT AND HAVING FUN…BY KILLING ….JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT!  When will we as a society look to the ETHICS of how we relate to our fellow beings on the planet?  Why is it that we allow laws to be in place that give free reign to these violent activities toward our wildlife.

E. O. Wilson, an esteemed ecologist wrote, ” Once a group (Coyotes) has been split off and sufficiently dehumanized….any brutality can be justified, at any level, and at any size of the victimized group.” in this quote, E.O. Wilson was referring to how we humans treat our fellow humans….but same holds for how we view and then treat non-human beings…..like Coyote.

It is interesting that I also had the opportunity to read about a life long hunter, trapper in Wisconsin, Rick Hanestad. He has been trapping and killing coyotes all his life until ONE DAY.  His grandfather who owns a 1,000 acre farm gave an individual permission to kill coyotes there. Well it just so happened that this person killed a lactating female coyote.

Hard core hunter trapper that Rick was, it still did not sit well with him.  He knew then that there were pups out there somewhere.  After searching and searching for three days, he finally found the den….with 5 helpless tiny, blind coyote pups sqealing in hunger. He still wasn’t sure if this was the mother who had been killed.  So he left and came back two days later. What he found….four of the tiny pups had died of starvation, and only one was hanging on.

He took the tiny pup home and cared for it…..and as the little one grew….he found out who Coyote really was. This was a man who killed many coyotes in the past….trapping them and then beating them to death. He said, ” I cannot tell you how this coyote turned me upside down. I feel like I am fightling for the life of my relative.”….he found out for himself that we are all connected….and you know what!

HE LET HIMSELF BE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN!  See the photo of “Wiley” the orphaned pup when he was being nurtured back to health.  (Remember…this is NOT a photo of a “pet”)

photo by Pierre Giard

A Healthy wild Coyote Family
….a rare sight.
and should it be so rare?

What kind of world do we want to hand down to our children?
It should make us reflect on
how we do things…

And so, in the work I do as a biologist,
I strive always to present to you a Vision of how we want life to be
and offering the Solutions to get there.

But once in a while, it is important to take a good look at what is
so we may be inspired to change it
So on this rare occasion I am attaching two links
Note that they speak about the Federal Agency called Wildlife Services……But note that what you read about this agency, also goes on here in Maine, not by this Federal agency, but by individuals whose violent actions most Mainers no nothing of…..but it is happening here in our own state because there is no law to stop it.
http://planetjh.com/2013/03/12/trapped

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/12/animal-torture-abuse-called-regular-practice-within-federal-wildlife-agency/

Photo by Fred Schaad

Much research is being pursued on Coyote’s fellow carnivore, the Mountain Lion. If you go to my page on this website with Journal Article links, you can view a film detailing recent research on the affects of uncontrolled  human killing of these great cats.

One of the grave concerns of biologists, is the lack of GENETIC DIVERSITY that is happening as a result of this unrestrained killing. AN EXAMPLE ~ In the state of Nevada, individuals are free to kill cougars YEAR ROUND ……does that not sound familiar to what Coyotes endure as well.

But what happens as a result…..well many complex reactions happen…..the carnivores relationship to their prey, their habitat, and increased conflict with humans. BUT IN ADDITION TO THE BREAKDOWN OF THESE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS…. BIODIVERSITY IS LOST….AND LOST FOREVER. WHY?

In the terms scientists use, carnivores that disperse into an area where they are systematically killed in great numbers  by humans, is referred to as a SINK.  And where carnivores have emigrated from is called a SOURCE. So if carnivores like cougars immigrate to a sink…..none will emerge from it, and immigrate to another area….so vitally important to the healthy genetics of our carnivores.

So what is happening to Cougars, is also happening to Coyotes that are killed year round by individuals here in Maine…..complex relationships with their prey, the ecosystem and us…change. AND THE HEALTHY GENETIC DIVERSITY OF COYOTES CANNOT, NOT BE AFFECTED.

INDISCRIMINATELY KILLING CARNIVORES HAS SERIOUS RESULTS….WE WANT TO CREATE A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS IN OUR CULTURE THAT WILL CHANGE KILLING TO PROTECTING.

photo by Brenda Buja

 DO YOU SEE HER?  

 LET ME TELL YOU HER STORY….                                             

First, I call her Red, because she was a beautiful red Coyote….expressing her unique genetics in her color.

The Maine resident that shared her story with me, owned a large parcel of land where Red was safe from human abuse….and where she witnessed her mousing in the meadow, teaming with rodents of all kinds.

But Coyotes have large territories…and one day Red traveled to an area outside her safe haven and was killed…..by individuals that killed her just because she was a coyote.

So there is no more mousing in that meadow….an ecosystem that was in balance when she was there….and now an ecosytem in imbalnce.

And when she was killed FOR NOTHING all her special genetics went with her….and left Maine that much more impoverished of the wonder of biodiversity. HOW LONG WILL OUR MAINE PEOPLE CONTINUE TO WITNESS THIS….. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN CHANGE THIS. WE WANT OUR CHILDREN AND OURSELVES TO DELIGHT IN OBSERVING THESE AMAZING WILD DOGS AT WORK IN THE ECOSYSTEM….IN OUR MEADOWS…IN OUR FORESTS…..EVERYWHERE HERE IN MAINE.

WHAT YOU CAN DO  ….. EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATOR HERE IN MAINE….TELL THEM YOU WANT OUR COYOTES PROTECTED FROM HUMAN PERSECUTION AND EXPLOITATION…..YOUR VOICE IS VERY POWERFUL!

Coyote Mates by John Tangney

Coyote Mates ~ they mate for life….until death do they part… And too often here in Maine, death comes long before they have the opportunity to grow old together.  And why?  …..Because our laws do not protect this important carnivore from violent human behavior. And as each legislative session meets in Augusta, a violent, small faction of individuals who think they can control our legislators,…present more bills to increase the cruel exploitation of our Coyotes here in Maine.

And so this year….it is LD 96  …..wanting to put into law a bounty now on Coyotes, and extend the barbaric practice of trapping by two more months ….it would then be from October 15 to February 15.

HAVE ANY OF YOU EVER OBSERVED THE EXCRUCIATING AGONY AND TERROR OF A COYOTE CAUGHT IN A TRAP…..AND IN THE WINTER, EXPOSURE TO THE EXTREME COLD?

I am attaching here a copy of the summary of this bill as well as a testimony of a Maine citizen before the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife committee this past week.  I encourage all of you to contact your Senator and Representatives that go to Augusta,  and tell them that you want to see bills up before the Legislature that give protection to our Coyotes not take away protection, and that you want them to vote this Bill down. Do you know how powerful your email is!

SUMMARY  LD96

15 This bill does the following:

16 1. It authorizes the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to adopt rules to

17 establish a coyote bounty system;

18 2. It provides that coyote bounties be paid from federal funding received from the

19 federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act; and

20 3. It sets a coyote trapping season from October 15th to February 15th.

Ron Joseph, L.D. 96 Testimony before the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee,

Feb. 19, 2013

Senator Dutremble, Representative Shaw, members of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Committee, my name is Ron Joseph. For 33-years, I worked as a professional wildlife

biologist for the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service.

,

As the State s regional Wildlife biologist in Greenville in the late 1980s, I supervised the

coyote control program in the Moosehead Lake region. I understand the importance of

healthy deer populations to Maine s rural economy, from sporting lodge owners to mom

and pop convenience stores. I also understand why this committee is tempted to continue

efforts to kill coyotes to maintain deer numbers. I am not opposed to killing coyotes.

However, for several reasons, I am opposed to killing coyotes with public funds. First,

coyote control is ineffective. We have been killing coyotes in Maine since the 1970s, and

the deer herd has still not recovered in eastern, western, and northern Maine. The coyote

has been and remains the scapegoat for Maine s deer ills. Re-building the deer herd can

only be accomplished by protecting deer wintering areas. Second, trapping and snaring

coyotes maims and kills non-target animals. I have walked trap-lines with trappers who

have accidentally killed bobcats, deer, and bald eagles. Third, the history of coyote

control has proven to be a waste of state money. There were 13,000 coyotes in Maine in

1985. Today, despite State efforts and fimds expended, State biologists estimate the

coyote population has either remained unchanged or slightly increased.

According to former State Representative Linda McKee of Wayne, between 1985 and

2003, the State spent an average of $40,000/year killing coyotes. Collectively, that s

$680,000 spent killing coyotes during a 17-year period. Coyote control ~ as tempting as it

is — does not work. With coyote populations today at or above the 1985 levels, let the

numbers help you decide your decision.

Finally, LD 96, as written, proposes to use Federal Pittman-Robinson Act money to pay

for the state s coyote bounty program. Two weeks ago I sent an email to Amy Winston —

Committee Analyst —- to inform her that using P-R Act funds was illegal. Pittman-

Robinson provides Federal aid to States for management and restoration of wildlife,

hunter education, and acquisition and improvement of wildlife habitat. It does not pay

for predator control. If this Committee pursues a coyote control program, the money will

have to come trom Maine citizens. It makes no sense in these lean budget times to

continue spending State money on an ineffective coyote control.

For all the above reasons, I encourage you to vote against L.D. 96.

Coyote in her World by Sheryl Bickel

 Election time is upon us…and reminds us that we live in a Democracy.  A Democracy, where the People have the Power.

 MAINE REGULATIONS

• Coyotes are socially complex wild canines.  The State of Maine hunting regulations permit YEAR ROUND killing of coyotes …with NO LIMITS. This lack of protection by our laws continually disrupts their lives and interferes with the vital role they play in the ecosystem.
• Coyotes are busy mating and raising their young during the months of January through June…and beyond. The State of Maine hunting regulations permit NIGHT “HUNTING” of coyotes from December 16 to August 31. How are coyotes to raise and teach their young in such an environment?
• Many young coyotes disperse from their parents in the Fall. The State of Maine trapping regulations permit the TRAPPING OF COYOTES TWO WEEKS PRIOR to most other wildlife. Why is this added stress placed on Maine’s coyote population?
• Coyotes are important canine carnivores, and play an essential role in creating biodiversity in Maine’s ecosystem.  The State of Maine permits COYOTE KILLING GAMES … for fun. Why?

Two Coyote Pups by Andy Marks

 The Faces of our Humanity…

I would like to share with you a short film that you can access by clicking on the link below. Though it is short in duration, it is powerful in expressing the diverse faces of our humanity.

What is the face of your Humanity?  What has been handed down to us as a society? Where do we want to go from here?  And how do we get there?

Again, I say, the only way we will get there….if we value getting there at all….is through enlightened indivuals of our Democracy…that can be you!  Those who take the time to understand their relationship with our planet and the amazing beings we share it with. Then act…as all our individual actions together are very powerful.

 I know as a scientist, that all the science we know makes NO DIFFERENCE if we do not act on it.  Here is the film….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9NAYCSyFk&list=UUD8GP2q9p2-DBpDbny2y_qQ&index=1&feature=plcp