Update: Good news! This bill failed to complete the legislative process prior to adjournment.
Bill Description: If passed, this bill would allow individual counties to set a bounty for the destruction of coyotes. Individuals then could hunt coyotes and turn in their dead bodies in exchange for a bounty. This bill is founded on the assumption that coyotes pose a serious threat to livestock.
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There are many humane methods of addressing human-wildlife conflicts, but creating a program that places a bounty on the head of coyotes is not the answer. In fact, a previously-established coyote bounty program was discontinued in Minnesota because the program was ineffective. Bounty programs are costly, ineffective, indiscriminate and inhumane because they do not target offending animals individually. Instead, this bill only offers indiscriminate, broad-scale killing. In addition, it fails to recognize that coyotes play a vital ecological role in healthy ecosystems by reducing rodent populations and keeping meso-predators in check. Meso-predators, such as raccoons, skunks, and opossums, can have detrimental impacts on ground-nesting bird populations, so keeping coyotes around helps maintain a balance within the environment.