NOT a hunter, yotes in my yard

[psalm7]

I live in a rual area and at night you can hear the yotes calling each other before they go hunting . Iv killed several including one big alfa male . I shot him one shot in the ear hole with a .22lr hollow point , the rest of the pack that was out of site started howling and whaling all around me .
I had a good Plot Hound that I had trouble keeping behind his fence . One day he escaped and went hunting on his own . He found a pack of coyotes and fought with them . It took him 2 days to come back all chewed up , even his belly tore open and one hind leg the muscel was chewed into . Im a fare home vet he lived but the hind leg shrunk and he had a limp . This dog was near 80 lbs not a small pet .
My varmit policy is if they stay in the wild unless Im varmit hunting they are safe , if they come near my yard they are fare game . Choot em .

[Hunter Customs]

My coyote policy is, if they are aligned in my sight picture, the shot is safe to take, when the trigger breaks they will be buzzard food.

[skizzums]

ive been spending about 20-30min before bed, around 1:30-2am, sitting on the deck, listening. i also spend a few minutes out right before sunrise, about 5:30. nothing new to report. odd that i have never seen a coyote in my 6 years of living in this house and saw four in one week. 2 at my house, 1 roadkill and 1 walking up the exit ramp on my way to work. seems like they ae setting up roots here, might be an issue of great concern in another year or two. i'll keep poking around, hoping for a moment of opportunity, not sure what else i can do besides that. i have an AR with a mounted light at the ready for the night ad my 357 lever at the ready for sunrise. no new signs, cats are still in and out every night and appear to keep coming home every morning, so maybe much about nothing, but i am keeping a keen eye.

[Mobuck]

Maybe you'd have better response taking the problem to the state game and fish, conservation dept, or whatever it's called locally. Often they have more/better resources to deal with the larger predators than a municipal animal control.

[Boncrayon]

Many are hunters, and many are not. It should be a mutual respect of opinions and upbringing. The "hunt" is for those who follow our pioneers that fed their families with delicious nutrition. Each state has a Wildlife & Fisheries Department that helps set the game limit of each species, and the fees charged for a license pays for the game wardens and upkeep of the hunting environment....too many of any specie creates a shortage in its food supply. Too few of a species requires protection. We live in the back yard of every species and need to respect wild life more than just us hunters, but for the species that give us a balance of our natural habitat.

Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries Hunter Education Instructor
NRA Certified Firearms Instructor / Range Safety Officer

[buck460XVR]

Was reading the local paper this morning and came across a article that made me think of this thread, especially after I read this post....

My coyote policy is, if they are aligned in my sight picture, the shot is safe to take

A Sparta man is lucky after a bullet only grazed his head while his neighbor was shooting at gophers.

The 49-year-old reported on July 3 being outside when he heard a ricochet sound and felt something strike his forehead, later discovering he was bleeding from an inch-long laceration, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.

The man said he was OK and declined medical attention.

Michael K. Zimmerman, 40, said he shot his .22-caliber rifle about 25 times at gophers in his front yard that afternoon and told authorities it was “dumb” to shoot toward the victim’s house, according to the report. He said it was an accident and that he was not trying to shoot his neighbor.

The victim stated a woman and his 4-year-old grandson were outside with him at the Bayport Avenue residence when the bullet grazed him.

Zimmerman has been charged with endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon. He has an initial court appearance scheduled for Aug. 17.

[Tinbucket]

i had the same problem and still do to an extent. They have set up housekeeping probably no more than 300 ft behind the house. they have been within a few feet of rear porch. Two of them came after my SIl and his two pups out for a walk. The cats have disappeared and the turkeys and deer just about gone too.
Surgeries and laying around her have kept me from going after them.
As far as the opossums they came to get the bit of cat food left. They cleaned up all the roaches and other bugs coming out of the wooods around the house. I wish I hadn't trapped and relocated them.
There are sign another one maybe be here as they leave small distinct droppings. If so I will let him alone. I' ve know some peopel who made pets out of them or sort of pets. They have some serious teeth that hurt but they are very domestic if tamed or just fed. Depends on how much attention you give them. They aren't the prettiest things but I have seen some more handsome than others. They are all good looking in god's eye.
We have a Fox or more likely family of foxes roaming her now. The coyotes usually get them so we will see. They are gray/red cross.

[psyfly]

Skizzums, lots of good advice here. You don't have to be a hunter to engage in pest/predator control.

Coyotes can be dangerous to your pets and, even if rarely, your kids.

An aside, but important issue if you have kids and cats in the house, is one I've been aware of for many years (as a neuroscientist) which surfaces every now and again in the MSM:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cat-para...schizophrenia/

If and when the link above expires do a web search on toxoplasma gondii and mental disorders. The issue has been known for a long time.

Aside to Tinbucket: be very cautious in assumptions about making pets of wild animals.

Best,

Will

[Longshot4]

A 20 gage slug gun will do a fine job. Or a simple single shot 12 gage with a full choke and BBB or larger. I took one out last Sept. and dropped it in its tracks with BBB at 40-50 Yards. The darn thing attacked my Goose decoy.
Shoot from your deck.

[Longshot4]

Take out the Yote and be glad you don't have Wolf's to deal with.

[skizzums]

not another issue since that week. had a lot of activity all in the span of two weeks(sighting of four and hearing them at night), and now appears to be nothing. not sure if it has something to do with the incline of brutal heat we have been having lately, high 90's to low 100's, but I am not hearing them talk at night anymore and not seeing any.

but I have NEVER in my life seen a coyote, I have been living here for about 6 years in this particular house, so now that they are here, I have a feeling the problem will only get worse as time goes on, even if it is seasonal or intermittent.

[Dragline45]

Last year my cat was killed by a coyote, stepped onto the deck and saw them chase it into the woods and grab it. Told my self ever since that if I ever see one in the yard again it's getting shot since I have another cat. I am not a hunter, have no desire to kill anything and would feel pretty bad, but I feel worse losing one of my pets.

Around that time they grabbed my cat these things were all over the neighborhood for about a week. You could hear them howling back and forth in the distance, and literally every neighborhood cat was missing after that, they cleaned house and moved on.

[Hunter Customs]

Around that time they grabbed my cat these things were all over the neighborhood for about a week. You could hear them howling back and forth in the distance, and literally every neighborhood cat was missing after that, they cleaned house and moved on.

Yep, you should see what a pack of them does to a new born calf.

A couple of them will go in a get the cows attention pulling her away from the calf, the others will go in and start eating the calf from the rear end without even killing it, you can imagine the screams from the calves.

Coyotes are vicious opportunist killers, I have no remorse about shooting any of them.

[SARuger]

I use a crossbow. Too many houses close to mine and even with a primitive weapon I'm careful with shot placement.

[skoro]

if i feel these yotes pose a threat to my pets or even my child and the other very young neighborhood kids? should i KILL it f encountered agin?

If it was me, I'd shoot any coyote I saw with whatever firearm I had at hand. They're more than a pest or a nuisance. They're a danger to children and pets.

[Dragline45]

A couple of them will go in a get the cows attention pulling her away from the calf, the others will go in and start eating the calf from the rear end without even killing it, you can imagine the screams from the calves.

Yikes, that's brutal. When they grabbed my cat I didn't hear a peep. Talked to a local fish & game officer and he said with smaller animals they break the neck within seconds.

[Bultaco]

A .22 rimfire rifle with a barrel over 20" and either long rifle of CB longs will make very little noise. Just pop the yote behind the shoulder and they will dispose of themselves somewhere in the thick & nasty. Give them the same break they give the small dogs & cats.

[skizzums]

good call for the crossbow, I have a recurve that my wife got me two Christmas's ago and still haven't learned to shoot it. I have a dozen nasty looking broadheads. maybe this will finally give enough motivation to get outside and practice. although my recurve is not likely ideal, I am sure it'll do the job if I can

[Water-Man]

We have more and more of them in North Georgia. They've been seen walking along Interstate 75 in Fulton County, just outside of Atlanta.

Get yourself a predator call and use your AR to dispatch them.

[buck460XVR]

Coyotes are vicious opportunist killers, I have no remorse about shooting any of them.

But aren't any of Mother Natures predators that way? No different than the hundreds of thousands of house cats that roam backyards killing millions of songbirds every year. I have no remorse shooting them either. If a stray 'yote gets one of them before I do, he just saved me a bullet. Coyotes kill to eat, not for the fun of it like housecats and humans. If they are in your backyard, it's because either they are just passing thru or there is a food source there. That food source could be your garbage, the rabbits living under your porch or the rats/mice in your garage/shed. Eliminating the food source more often than not, will make them go away......but then so will a piece of lead. I have no problem with folks shooting them when it is safe and legal, I do all the time. I do have a problem when they make them out to be sadistic killers waiting for the kids at the bus stop..........

[skizzums]

your correct about housecats killing for fun, I have to that lay in wait all day. they just love to leave a mangled rabbit on the porch for me. doesn't bother me though, this is the first year my vegetable garden wasn't raped and pillaged by rabbits.

[Hunter Customs]

Well, when coyotes start eating something before they even kill it, making it have an agonizing death, that's pretty darn sadistic to me.

I'm also not convinced they don't kill for fun, on more then one occasion I've known where a lone coyote will come in and torment a dog in it's own yard enough the dog will chase it, then the dog will be jumped by the pack waiting to kill him.

They rip the dog to shreds, don't eat it, they just leave it laying there, that gives me the impression they killed for fun.

[shortwave]

orig. posted by Hunter Customs:

Yep, you should see what a pack of them does to a new born calf.

Or a calving cow.

It's as though the yotes learn the language of the cows. They can almost sense that the more bellowing the cow does the closer she gets to giving birth, the more they hang around.
When the cow goes down to give birth, if they can get to her, they will actually yank the calf out of her as soon as the calf starts coming out and they can get a hold of it.

Far as yotes in suburban areas and even in the city...IMO, there will be a continual increase in their population (at least here in the state of Ohio) because there just isn't any programs set up to deal with them and they have no natural predators. We know that yotes, like most predatory game, are going to migrate to where the most abundant, easiest food supply is. No hunting, especially in the suburban areas and city parks equates to large deer herds in these areas as well as other food sources being very abundant for yotes.
This in turn leaves pets and small children at risk. In this state the confrontation between humans and their pets are growing at an alarming rate.

[TimSr]

Well, when coyotes start eating something before they even kill it, making it have an agonizing death, that's pretty darn sadistic to me.

I think its always a mistake to attribute human emotion and ethics into animals. For any predator, killing is for the purpose of getting an animal to hold still while they eat it. No predatory animal is concerned about making a quick and painless kill. That is a human emotion that we expect human hunters to live up to, which is why anitis don't like to compare an animals "natural death" to hunting.

Instinctive killing for the sake of killing, or to exercise predatory skills is not confined to domestic cats. To characterize it as "killing for fun" is again attributing human emotion to wild (or domestic) animals. Most of the sweetest and most loveable dogs will kill any other smaller species unless they are trained not to.

When a wild animal kills to survive, by definition it is opportunistic. While humans are taught "don't take more than you can eat, and don't waste food", a predator does not calculate how many of an animal needs to be killed to fill him up. If its a whole little, he will kill the whole litter and decide later if his belly is full.

I support anyone who enjoys lawful and ethical hunting, but if you are motivated by hatred or vengence of certain species for doing what animals naturally do, It would kind of take the fun out of hunting for me.

[shortwave]

Agree with your sentiments TimSr.

While I do not have a hatred for yotes and fully understand they are doing what comes natural for them, with the population explosion of them and the damage they do, especially to the deer and turkey population, I will still try and kill every one I see simply because around these parts they have no other predator.

One thing I've learned about yotes...with the number of offspring a bitch throws every year, I don't think we can control, or even maintain them just by hunting. IMO, it's going to take trapping as well... and a lot of it at this point.

Also, far as yotes eating on something while it's still alive, they aren't the only animals that do so. And yes, we frown upon it cause we are human. Don't know how many times I've sit in a boat and watched a coon on the bank catch a fish and eat it while fish is still flopping. That's just mother nature.