A conflict this weekend between hunters and property owners in northeastern Vermont has reignited calls from animal advocates for more regulations.

Groups including Protect Our Wildlife and the Vermont Coyote Coexistence Coalition have been regularly advocating for Vermont to follow the lead of Massachusetts and set a formal season on the killing of coyotes.

Their multi-year campaigns added a new supporter after a scene that played out Saturday morning in the backyard of Diana Hansen of Craftsbury.

“It was, particularly for me, extremely traumatic,” Hansen told necn Tuesday.

Hansen said a hunter set his dogs on a coyote, and they chased the animal into Hansen’s backyard — biting and bloodying the coyote as her young children watched from a rear window, horrified.

“It was incredibly disturbing to see that kind of violence happening,” Hansen said.

The mom said the coyote pursuit also caused around $500 in damage to the family’s greenhouse when the dogs and their target climbed on the greenhouse, puncturing its plastic with their claws.

It is legal to hunt coyotes with hounds year-round in Vermont, but animal advocacy groups often criticize the practice.

“The use of hounds in hunting is really concerning,” said Barry Londeree of the Humane Society of the United States.

The Humane Society, along with Protect Our Wildlife and the Vermont Coyote Coexistence Coalition, wants to see tighter regulations in the state, including a specific hunting season for coyotes.

Londeree said the animals have an important role in the ecosystem, including preying on rodents like mice and rats.

“They shouldn’t be subject to year-round hunting with no limits,” Londeree said of coyotes.

For a response to the advocacy groups’ calls for a defined hunting season on coyotes, with limits, necn sought an interview with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife.