It’s hard to understand why some people hate coyotes with so much passion. Coyotes are wild dogs, and we all love our dogs. They will bother farm animals, but with good animal husbandry, co-existence is possible, and many farmers do that. When they don’t and offer coyotes an easy meal, the coyote will take it. Recently, our senators had an opportunity to end one of the vilest ways coyotes are killed. SB 346 would have ended the barbaric practice of coyote hounding. We lobbied the senators at the state house in Concord on the day of the vote, giving them a postcard with a recent NH photo of a beautiful reddish coyote in the snow.
One of the senators asked why we don’t use an image of a coyote ravaging a cow. What does he think happens to the cow when she goes to the slaughterhouse? At least the coyote kills to survive. Another senator said coyotes are cruel. Coyotes kill to survive. The coyote hound hunter does it for fun. It is easy to determine who the cruel one is. The bill did not pass. It is a familiar sight to see schoolchildren visiting the state house. As we stood in the hallway, a group of children from the Sant Bani School walked past us as they exited the Senate chamber. We asked a little girl if she would like a coyote picture. Excited, she said yes, “I love coyotes!” The other children echoed her love for coyotes. Bless the beasts and children
Linda Dionne
Raymond