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Oct 25, 2013 - 2:50PM

The Coyote and the Hound

The Coyote and the Hound

This is a story of two hunters -- kind of like the Disney classic ‘ The Fox and the Hound’ but hopefully without the inaccurate attribution of human qualities to animals.
I live in the country. When I was a boy it was inhabited with a rather large number of red fox, a few deer and a hundred snowshoe rabbits in every cedar swamp. There were scores of European hares (jack rabbits) living in the fence lines and fields.
Today, there are a few red fox, living on the fringes of their previous range; digging their dens beside highways and villages and paying the price in dead fox pups. There are a few snowshoe rabbits. Their numbers ebb and flow in typical cycles, but in far, far fewer numbers. A jack rabbit sighting is a rare, rare occurrence.
There are a LOT more deer than there used to be, but not as many as say, then years ago.
What there are a lot of is coyotes --. coyotes in the woods; in the fields on the fringes of towns and in remote areas far from human habitation. I can remember older hunters talking about the first ones they saw – some had no idea what they were. Now everyone knows what they are. They’ve heard their wild song at night. They’ve had encounters – some pleasurable, some painful.
Coyotes.
He has keen eyes and ears and a radar nose. He runs with a combination of speed and endurance that few in the animal kingdom can match. If you corner him, he fights with a ferocity that is much bigger than his body weight. He eats pretty much anything that won’t eat him. He is a hunter.
As a hunter, he has often run aground of popular opinion. His method of procuring lamb chops is a bit more messy than picking them up at the local grocery store. He ingests cuddly rabbits and squirrels .He will pursue and kill white tail deer, particularly if snow conditions favor him. If his numbers increase and wild prey becomes scarce he isn’t averse to adding the occasional cockapoo to the menu. He will swallow calico cats with relish. He adapts.
His propensity for hunting has gotten him in all sorts of trouble with men. He has been hunted, trapped, poisoned for generations. He survives. He is a hunter. He doesnn’t want or need your pity or your acceptance or your admiration. He wants to be left alone. I believe, to a certain degree, I understand him. I am a hunter.
As a hunter, I do not love the coyote. I do not hate him. I admire his grit and his guile and his gait.
The animal I do have affection for is the fox hound. We call them fox hounds but with the diminishment of red foxes and the proliferation of coyotes, it might be more accurate to call them coyote hounds.
Your coyote hound is 40 pounds of grit, speed, endurance and intelligence. He has long ears, warm eyes and an independent streak that generations of domestication hasn’t erased. He has a certain aloofness that retrievers and herd dogs and guard dogs don’t possess.
He would, literally, rather hunt than eat. He is a hunter. He welcomes human affection but can live quite well without it. In the end, he prefers to be in wild, open spaces with nothing between him and his quarry – the coyote – but speed and nerve and will.
Coyote hounds are declining in numbers. Urban sprawl, the increased traffic that accompanies it; the ‘city’ mentality that urban dwellers who sell their city homes and move to cheaper housing in the country bring with them; political correctness and the Disney world view have all combined to work against the coyote hound – and his human companion.
Farmers, particularly those whose sheep or calves became coyote fare often welcome coyote hounds and hunters -- the urban transplant with his two acres and ‘don’t walk on my grass’ mentality – not so much.
A certain group of people – Peta etc. – have sized up the situation and decided that the coyote definitely needs some help. I guess their agenda is to see a healthy coyote behind every tree and the extinction of those nasty hounds and hunters. They may be well on their way to getting their wish.
They hope and plan to eliminate all hunting – hounds and hunters alike – everywhere. For now they are focusing a lot of their attention, finances and bile on training areas – larger fenced in areas from 20 to 2,000 acres stocked with coyotes and red fox.
They classify the pursuit of coyotes and fox in these areas by hounds as a blood sport – like bull-fighting, dog and **** fighting and Middle East terrorism.
The truth of the matter is hound owners who participate in Saturday night runs with a few friends and the occasional field trial want to assess the speed, endurance and honesty of their hounds and there is only one means to do that – a healthy, live coyote.
Is the occasional coyote or fox killed in these places? Yes. To answer differently would be a lie and that field is best left to PETA and their ilk.
Ministry biologists have told me that the life expectancy of a red fox in the wild is 14-months. I assume a coyote would be approximately the same. Very few wild animals die a natural death after a prolonged life. Highways, steel traps, predators and disease combine to thin the herds.
I have seen distinctively-marked coyotes that have lived and flourished for years in training areas with heavy use and several annual field trials held there. They are fed regularly, inoculated against rabies and mange and parvo etc. when introduced to the enclosure and regularly treated to prevent mange and other diseases by medicating their food supply.
They are provided with escape areas – culverts that allow the coyote to enter a small tube and turn around. Most hounds foolish enough to press the issue advance in single file and retreat with facial wounds and an aversion to culverts.
At a ‘catch’ hunters will do their utmost to rescue the coyote and pen owners are extremely protective of their investment in the game stocked in these enclosures. In short, everything possible is done to keep the coyote healthy and alive. It is the chase that matters. PETA members don’t seem to understand this. Every true hound man does.
Members of the Coyote-Protection-Industry have spewed fictional statements like ‘ They don’t feed the hounds for three days before a field trial so they will be hungry enough to catch and eat coyotes.’
The truth is both coyotes and hounds are well fed and rested before trials. The purpose of field trials is to better the breed through competition.
In short, coyote hounds, hunting and field trials may not be for everyone. However anyone with a speck of knowledge and objectivity will realize that training enclosures
have been forced upon hunters because of urban sprawl, traffic increases and effective propaganda by the ‘Animal Rights Groups’.
Any true hounds man would prefer the wide open spaces of another time. That time has come and gone and for many, training enclosures are all that’s left.
Again, the coyote is a wonderful, adaptable animal who can and will hold his own under any conditions. He is a fellow hunter – not to be deified or vilified – but to be confronted by another hunter – the coyote hounds.
The wild music of the chase; the fluidity of pursued and pursuers and the chess game of wits between intelligent animals is what drives and sustains those of us who love the chase.
I do not approve of cities. I’d like to eliminate the traffic jams, pollution, crime, drug problems etc. that proliferate there. However, there are people who love life in the cities. I hope they can work to make them the best possible environment for the way of life that they have chosen.
We, as hound owners, would like to be afforded that same opportunity.

james trawick

Oct 25, 2013 - 8:08PM