Sen. Bill Cook, a Beaufort County Republican, wants to allow coyote hunting at night in Beaufort, Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington counties in northeastern North Carolina – the only counties where that activity isn’t allowed.
“Coyotes are nonnative and invasive – they’re very destructive to the native wildlife,” Cook said in an email. “I am simply proposing for five coastal counties to be coequal with the other 95 counties in our state in regards to the rules of hunting coyotes.”
The reason for the coyote hunting ban isn’t to save the coyote population. The concern is that the endangered red wolf looks like a coyote, and hunters can easily mistake the two.
The five counties included in the coyote ban are part of the state’s Red Wolf Recovery Area, home to the world’s only remaining population of red wolves. The nighttime hunting ban is part of a 2014 federal court settlement in a lawsuit between the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and several environmental groups that seek to protect the red wolves.
The groups had sued the state, arguing that coyote hunting practices were harming the red wolf population in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The settlement also required the wildlife commission to issue permits for daytime coyote hunters in the five counties.
Cook’s bill would direct the Wildlife Resources Commission to end the nighttime hunting ban. The Southern Environmental Law Center – which was involved in the 2014 settlement – said Wednesday that it’s opposing the bill.
“A bill to allow nighttime hunting of coyotes using spotlights within the five-county Red Wolf Recovery Area flies in the face of a recent settlement agreement between Wildlife Resources Commission and conservation groups in federal court,” spokeswoman Kathleen Sullivan said in an email. “Clearly the bill sponsor did not consult with the state agency.”
Exposing the Big Game 
So where is the pandemic that is supposed to end human species?
This is all going on behind the scenes while everyone gasps at What Has Donald Trump Tweeted Today.
The Donald is playing to all the people who have the attention span of a slug plus a liking for the inane and sensational. Slugs have an excuse.
That is a problem with bans–they can be overturned. And, yes, red wolves are endangered. Some sanctuaries, such as Wolf Haven, are allowed to breed them captivity in order to avoid extinction. The coyote hunters will probably kill any red wolves they see and claim they thought they shot a coyote. When it comes to a chance for killing, hunters can’t seem to tell a deer from an elk, a wolf from a dog, or a moose from a horse.
“Coyotes are nonnative and invasive – they’re very destructive to the native wildlife,” Cook said in an email.” Cook doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Coyotes are native and imbued with special talents in stories of indigenous people. Permitting nighttime hunting with lights is extremely cruel. People should read up on co-existing with coyotes instead of satisfying their blood thirst. http://www.projectcoyote.org/
Reblogged this on uddeer and commented:
Coyotes keep the rodent populations in check and are beneficial to ecosystems.