
Originally Posted by
Vtbuck223
VtHunter basically beat me to it.
I realized as this conversation progressed that I knew very little about the coyote derby's in Vermont...so I did some quick research. And... basically everything that I could readily find was sourced from anti-hunting groups. All of the media coverage has been instigated by the anti-hunting groups and disseminated through outlets sympathetic to their cause. This is what they do and this is how they do it! Coyote derby's today, leg hold traps tomorrow, bear baiting in Maine on Sunday, cruelty to otters on Monday, outrage around trapping of Lynx on Tuesday, cruelty of bear dogs on Wednesday, must have anti hunting representation on the board on Thursday....and on and on! This is what they do but we don't have to play their game!
This conversation has strayed and many of the nuanced arguments don't stand up when seriously examined from a management perspective. As an example...of course we humans have always encouraged propagation of some species over others for our own benefit and we continue to do so today in many different ways. The idea that it is wrong to protect one species from another so that you can harvest the more desirable one is silly. Although the French apparently love eel...we generally don't look at Lamprey as favorably as Lake Trout. In many waters there are few limits and closed season on pickerel and within the same waters strict protections for other fish. There are endless examples of this. (And just in case you suggest that lampreys are an “invasive” and therefore different…here is a quote from the cooperative lamprey project of NY, VT, US F&W, & DEC: “Recent genetic studies indicate that the sea lamprey may be native to Lake Champlain…..Whether the sea lamprey is native to Lake Champlain or not, it is having detrimental impacts on the Lake Champlain fisheries, ecosystem, and human residents that are very significant.”)
Does anyone here even know a single person who hunts coyotes in May? (not talking about shooting them to protect chickens on a homestead..etc) That is a non issue…again right out the anti’s playbook...it's called "obfuscation".There are lots of animals that have no closed season...because there is no need to have a closed season...coyotes are rightly in this category and their success underscores the point.
I have never and don't ever plan on attending a derby of any kind.... fishing, coyote or otherwise. I don't even know anyone who has participated in a coyote derby... but... to even mildly suggest that people who participate in a derby must be "crazed coyote haters" is right out the anti's playbook.
And lastly...I'm personally careful not to use terms like "cruel" in association with legal hunting and fishing activities. (Cruel definition: "willfully causing pain or suffering to others". synonyms: brutal, savage, inhuman, barbaric, barbarous, brutish, bloodthirsty, murderous, vicious, sadistic, wicked, evil, fiendish, diabolical, monstrous, abominable) That is right out of the anti's playbook. Be careful how you characterize our freedoms and remember that the anti's already apply such terms to the activities that you choose to participate in and hold so dear.