From the time Europeans settled North America, coyotes have been persecuted because of conflicts, including preying on livestock. Coyotes have thrived despite organized attempts made to eradicate them in the first half of the 20th century. Governments offered bounties and funded extensive coyote “control” programs. Farmers even poisoned dead livestock and left them for the coyotes to eat.
Animal Alliance has worked to reduce human-coyote conflicts through education and non-lethal intervention programmes, specifically in communities that are experiencing conflict, such as Sarnia, Toronto and Ottawa.
Stanley Gehrt is an associate professor at Ohio State University and has been studying coyote behavior in urban Chicago for over 12 years. Gehrt found that “urban coyote populations are much larger than expected, that they live longer than their rural cousins, and that they are more active at nighttime than coyotes living in rural areas.” (click here for the January 2009 article) As a coyote expert, he has written about human-coyote conflicts and how they can be resolved. A document titled Urban Coyote Ecology and Management provides an excellent overview of coyotes and conflict resolution possibilities.
In the past, Saskatchewan had a coyote bounty, paying residents $20 if they produced four paws of a killed coyote. In February 2010, the government announced 18,000 coyotes were killed, about one half of their target number. The bounty has since been discontinued, but widespread hunting of the animals is ongoing.
Organizations, such as the Born Free USA, with the Animal Protection Institute, have researched the issues surrounding coyotes and humans extensively. For an overview, visit http://www.bornfreeusa.org/articles.php?p=1139&more=1