by Lindzey Beal
I am responding to a recent article written by lobbyist, Mike Covey, and his unmistakable intolerance toward wildlife advocacy groups and its members. I felt compelled to correct misleading statements that misrepresented the values and goals of wildlife advocates. It’s okay to disagree, but the continued misinformation that I see from this particular lobbyist needs to be addressed.
First and foremost, wildlife advocates in Vermont, such as Protect Our Wildlife and Vermont Wildlife Coalition are not “anti-hunting activists”— I can tell you this because I’ve been a longtime supporter. For instance, they’ve made clear that they don’t oppose hunting for food with respect for the life taken. Wildlife advocates speak out against dangerous, inhumane, and environmentally unsound activities that Vermont Fish & Wildlife politically endorses despite the fact that these practices contradict their own science. The wildlife advocacy community has been very clear about which practices they oppose: trapping, bear and coyote hounding and the open killing season on coyotes.
It’s well documented that trapping inflicts unimaginable pain and prolonged suffering on trapped animals. Recently, a man in Addison County saw an injured coyote on his trail camera dragging a leghold trap from its paw. That animal will die a long and painful death, all due to a trapper’s intolerance and hatred toward predator species. Non-targeted animals, such as owls and even bears are trapped in these torturous devices. In recent years, several household pets have been badly injured or killed due to unmarked baited traps set in locations that include walking trails, shallow streams and popular wooded areas. Black bears are terrorized for miles by packs of frenzied hounds, all while their handlers sit in a truck far away with no control over their whereabouts. These hounds cross over into private property, have harmed people and their animals and, of course, place bears and their cubs in danger. Coyote hunting is allowed 365 days of the year including at night and over bait piles. Coyotes never get a break from the relentless killing—pups are orphaned every year when their parents are killed.
What’s even worse is that these practices aren’t even grounded in sound science. These are recreational activities that a subset of Vermont “sportsmen” enjoy. When we hear people like Mr. Covey talk about supporting science, I find it ironic because when the scientists at Conte Wildlife Refuge in Vermont recently shortened the bear hound training season out of concern for ground nesting birds, Covey fought it. When peer reviewed science revealed that killing coyotes does not manage their populations, Covey chose not to believe it. It’s well known that lead ammunition for hunting is poisoning protected species like birds of prey, but Covey doesn’t believe that either.
Another priority for wildlife advocates is to make wildlife decisions a democratic process. Covey feels that only hunters and trappers should have power when it comes to forming rules and regulations. The fish and wildlife board is composed solely of hunters and trappers and anyone outside of this group has no voice when it comes to decision making. In what other area of government is a lack of diversity and inclusion acceptable? I’ve attended Fish and Wildlife Board meetings and the intolerance toward wildlife advocates was very clear.
It’s pretty simple what wildlife advocates want from VT Fish & Wildlife: follow the science; address unethical and exceptionally cruel methods of killing wildlife; treat wildlife advocates as part of the community, not as villains. We aren’t going away. We are only growing stronger.
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Categories: Commentary, Outdoors
Ok while the author is entitled to her own opinions, she’s clearly got some biases herself. Just because a coyote is dragging around a leg hold certainly does not mean the individual that set the trap has intolerance or hatred toward a predator species. She can call them negligent is anchoring their trap and still be accurate but when she uses the language she chose she is clearing displaying her own actual intolerance. Trappers make mistakes too and my acquaintances that continue in the old tradition of trapping are some of the most knowledgeable and respectful stewards of ecosystems i know. And FYI Lindzey, while that coyote is in an unfortunate circumstance, based upon my experiences with coyotes and trapping, i can say, with almost certainty, the dog will live. So maybe in addition to your intolerance of trapping as a wildlife management practice, you also have some ignorance to address.
Every person who submits an article and comments on here holds bias – though the few anti-trapping articles included on VDC as well as a number of the comments at least provide documented data and statistics to support their side – as opposed to your retort that displays none of them.
And so FYI Carl, I’ll reiterate the facts (culled from a VT F & W poll and Nat Geo data reprinted from data taken by Dept. of the Interior) that:
1.) Three-quarters of Vermont Citizens are opposed to trapping – making you & your group a minority.
2.) Trapping kills hundreds of thousands of non-targeted species annually – including species that are endangered or are protected.
3.) Trapping maims and kills a sizeable number of domestic animals annually including taking the lives of at least two beautiful and beloved pet dogs only last year right here in VT
First, are you discriminating against a minority? Second, how many bugs do you voluntarily kill driving your vehicle or mowing your lawn? Third, how many beloved pets are killed on roadways in vermont annually? Should be ban vehicles? Everytime i kill a coyote i remind myself of how manys fawns, turkeys, partridge and squirrels i likely just rescued from being torn to death.
Let me finish that sentence for you, Carl, “…that dog will almost certainly live” .. after it chews it’s leg off.
Yes, thats correct, much like a deer after being hit by your vehicle will likely live with 3 legs until it dies from something else. I did say trappers make mistakes like anyone else. However traps and trap anchor technology have come a long way recently. These events occur much less frequently than they used to and traps are better engineered to be species specific preventing harm to non target animals.
S.O.S.
Shoot on sight?
Shoot on Sight? Sounds precisely like the highly irresponsible and potentially deadly mentality of an overly anxious & inexperienced hunter ambling through the woods as opposed to an individual with steady nerves, self-control, and possessing the knowledge in identifying one’s target before ever considering pulling the trigger. I would recommend to anyone who is plodding through the VT brush with such air to seriously consider enrolling in a beginner course in firearm safety.
Same old S___
Oh, same old stuff. I honestly didn’t know.
Indeed. S.O.S.
Ms. Beal intellectualizes from a removed perspective about cultural subjects with which she has no affinity and about which she is clearly biased. She epitomizes the disdain for rural, male culture and is enthusiastically engaged in suppressing that culture. There’s a word for doing that.
AS IF the plethora of “pro-trapping” articles on VDC aren’t clearly biased?? As if nearly, anyone placing pen to paper to communicate facts, stats, and their perspective doesn’t hold bias?? And your personal definition of “male culture” and my son-in-law’s definition who happens to be a veterinarian are very obviously worlds apart – he has personally witnessed the ramifications of your glorious “sport” of trapping and abhors it.
Further, more elaboration based upon scholarly research of the psychosocial aspects of “male culture” of which you speak might be infinitely interesting.
you cannot oppose the truth
You can, but in my opinion it’s an act of desperation.
Yes. Desperation to demonstrate one’s humanity in every act and every gesture. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated: Gandhi
Oxford Dictionary, “a state of despair, typically one which results in rash or extreme behavior.”
And again I proclaim, befitting with the definition: Desperation to demonstrate one’s humanity in every act and in every gesture. Such are those who fight for the dignity of life in all forms created by God.
support mark higley
message to bob/// are you allowed to say that word on this website now/// some times you have to tell it the way it is///
Lindzey Beal is just another bleeding-heart liberal, and that picture is probably older than her, give me a break……all hype that’s all, you’ll never get your point across with this BS…………………..
Just wait until she has to deal with a coyote herself, they are vermin just like rats !!!
Thank you, Lindzey Beal, for taking the time to express your thoughtful insights on the cruel “sport” of trapping and provide enough factual content to not only support the reality of the brutality & danger of trapping, but to so very effectively have communicated these realities so as to very obviously have upset the delicate sensitivities to those who oppose trapping, based upon the comments to your article.
Coyotes remain as highly intelligent members of the canid family who live within embedded social structures and are native to North America – living upon the Continent long before European settlers ever stepped foot here. More reality.
They are invasive here.
I ‘attended’ Fish and Wildlife Board’s December meeting via Zoom and witnessed their clear “intolerance toward wildlife advocates”. For those of you who missed it, here’s a clear picture that is representative of the Board’s attitude: The appointed Board member representing Grand Isle County, puffing hard on his cigarettes from the beginning to the end of the meeting, blowing smoke directly into the camera with a scowl whenever an advocate for the proposed trapping regulations spoke, scratching his head forehead with his middle finger.
WOW! THANKS for sharing, Brian. Sounds like an individual possessing great intellect & presence particularly within the realm of aiding in making decisions for the greater good of all Vermont residents (the majority of whom oppose trapping) as well as the wild and domestic animals whom we are endowed via our humanity to protect, preserve, and have thoughtful & respectful dominion over.
It seems like these advocacy groups only care about animals that look like stuffed animals or their domestic pets. How do they feel about the mass slaughter of bugs as an alternative source of protein? Sooo many more soles….
Stuffed animals pale in comparison to the majesty of living, breathing, and spirited beings created by God and this never-ending amateurish, disreputable, and shameless disrespectful comments lodged against women in particular – which are once again merely reflections of the quality of character of any individual who asserts them.
The beautiful and eternally memorialized Thylacine – a once peaceable & intrinsic part of the ecosystem mainland Australia and New Zealand wiped out by overzealous, rabid hunters who considered their existence immaterial and their rabid quest to control nature imperative.
Similar tragedies are both seen and felt right in Vermont with regard to the “Eastern” Cougar and the Gray Wolf – both of which once dominated this region. Today, many now mourn the lack of an apex predator resulting in a supposed over-population of species such as deer, that hunters require “controlling”.
Just in case “inquiring minds” really want to know, the following information was copied and pasted from Wikipedia,
Thylacinus cynocephalus), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine)
Beginning in the nineteenth century, they were perceived as a threat to the livestock of farmers and bounty hunting was introduced.
Its extinction is popularly attributed to these relentless efforts by farmers and bounty hunters.[42][103][104]
Aside from persecution, it is likely that multiple factors rapidly compounded its decline and eventual extinction, including competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers,[105] erosion of its habitat, already-low genetic diversity, the concurrent extinction or decline of prey species, and a distemper-like disease that affected many captive specimens at the time.[40][106]
By the beginning of the 20th century, the increasing rarity of thylacines led to increased demand for captive specimens by zoos around the world, adding yet another pressure to an already small population.[111]
The last known thylacine to be killed in the wild was shot in 1930 by Wilf Batty, a farmer from Mawbanna in the state’s northwest. The animal, believed to have been a male, had been seen around Batty’s house for several weeks.[113][114]
I’m not certain what your post purports to prove or disprove, but again, the Thylacine, as with many other species such as the Gray Wolf and the Eastern Cougar, (now both officially considered extinct in VT) were established in Australia/New Zealand and on the Continent of North America long before Caucasians/European settlers arrived. The Tasmanian Tiger existed as far back as 100 B.C.. European “colonists” (a now popular reference) on that Continent “discovered” the region and brought forth with them numerous non-indigenous species such as the now prevalent Dingo as well as a variety of farm animals/non-native cattle. This was executed in similar fashion by Euro settlers upon this continent as well who, again, deforested the mountains to allow for grazing of their newly imported animals whilst considering the native species to be “threats” to their novel livelihoods & farming methods, and almost immediately began extermination campaigns against these native apex predators.
As far as what precisely dealt the “final blow” to the Tasmanian Tiger can never be proven one way or the other (the same holds true for other relatively recent extinctions such as the Whooley Mammoth, the Mastodon, etc.) but without dispute government-sponsored bounties on the head of every single one of those beautiful creatures certainly took a massive toll. The selection process for attaining a Tasmanian Tiger for exhibition purposes during that era was always quite limited – in fact merely two institutions within the USA ever held one or more, one being the Bronx Zoo in NYC. There was never any great demand for them in general, and zoos requested exhibition replacements only when their own individual animals died. By the time there was perhaps as you indicated, repeated requests or “demand” for replacements, the imperiled species was already in such decline that the zoos were formally informed that the animals already supplied would almost certainly be the last examples able to ever be provided.
In any event, human intervention or the reckless pursuit by hunters or bounty hunters or trophy hunters in irrationally targeting specific species to the detriment of the ecosystem and the environment played as major a role in the extinction (as did the connected manmade habitat loss in 19th century Vermont) of both the Catamount and the Gray Wolf here.
Presently nonetheless, and in using the IDENTICAL ideology in these exterminations, as well as the apparent human species’ poor ability to learn from previous mistakes……. we now have posts herein intimating for the exact same process to be enacted against Coyotes (referring to the species as “vermin” —– a gross genealogical error to begin with) and even culling a large portion of the black bear population once again – a populace once pretty much decimated by the 1970’s, only to have recovered relatively recently.
To deny that man’s meddling and overreach has caused disastrous consequences to Mother Nature’s symbiotic environs over the eons is but to deny reality.
RE: “It’s well documented that trapping inflicts unimaginable pain and prolonged suffering on trapped animals……..” No Ms. Beal, a small game trap does not cause “unimaginable pain.” I’ve had my fingers and hand caught setting a Victor No. 2 more times than I can recall. Non target species are routinely released unharmed.
In nature, animals are typically eaten alive, or perish from disease and hunger. Fates far, far more painful and prolonged than harvest by a sportsman. Perhaps you should spend time afield to educate yourself on what you’re so passionate about. Or continue to be discounted as an emotionally distraught cat hoarder.
NEK Patriot – Once again, your continued misogynistic comments that completely disregard Mr. Page’s directives for civil commentary (usually directed at me) are an offense to the sensibilities of most women in general and merely reflect upon the possible shortcomings of your own character. They certainly do not characterize the author of this VDC article whom you personally know nothing about other than the opinions she aptly expressed within her well-written column that no one but avid trappers are discounting.
And your weak argument for killing animals before they may “starve” or “perish” from disease or hunger is akin to the now popular but perverse justification for abortion itself wherein pro-abortion individuals & groups claim that the killing of the unborn is a “more humane” option for a baby who might not have enough to eat or live a substandard lifestyle. In other words, you are somehow doing a living, functioning, otherwise healthy animal a “favor” by ending its life.
Lastly, your unfounded assertion that non-targeted species are “routinely” released is not merely in dispute but has been long evidenced as being patently false as evidenced in the numerous articles published by National Geographic alone, including one particular publication (April, 2022) wherein the magazine detailed the over 3,000 non-targeted species killed (some protected) by Wildlife Services in the year 2021 alone.
Facts matter; as does demonstrating respect for women. Two-thirds of ALL Vermont residents oppose trapping according to a recent VT F & W survey – and it might be just a tad irrational for anyone to believe that the department surveyed only women.
How do you know NEK Patriot isn’t a woman or doesn’t identify as one? Are you assuming no women run trap lines? I assure you, that isn’t a case. The trapping community is very diverse and inclusive.
“We aren’t going away. We are only growing stronger” states the author. Such is the very reason why past predatory type comments hurled against wildlife/animal advocates on VDC were never successful in silencing them. The tenacity of the growing advocacy groups & their supporters, and their aim in exposing what many consider to be the brutal truths of how trapping impacts wildlife, pets, and the general environment certainly threatens the status Quo. But what many of those posters perhaps didn’t realize is that those who were the target of such ridicule only empowered them with the will to persevere with an even greater degree of determination.
If NEK is a woman – HE sure is self-deprecating! LOL. And the trapping community may be diverse, but it still is a small minority. Again, for the 87th time, two-thirds of Vermonters oppose trapping. And round and round we go. Again.
Perhaps NEK and all others who otherwise anonymously enter onto VDC with bravado and bluster in feebly attempting to belittle other posters – ought to consider following VDR’s recommendations and use your given names while engaging in childish attacks? That way, NEK can let us know whether or not he’s a woman (as you suggest) or just identifies as one.
I didn’t suggest NEK Patriot was a woman (btw, what’s a woman?) I was just saying i have no idea and im not sure you do either. To be honest Kathleen, i agree with most things you say. You and i disagree on trapping and that’s ok. I hope one day we can chat about it and our experiences.
I suppose, that if one draws this much ire and direct personal attack, then one has written something that strikes a nerve. For those who haven’t had the opportunity to read the piece Mrs. Beal is referencing, here is a link.
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/covey-hunters-and-trappers-are-critical-to-wildlife-protection/
The word lobbyist is used here as a perjorative, but in that role I am an educator, or at least I seek to be. I am first and foremost a Vermonter who never sought this role. I do this work because I love my community for our lifestyle and the value we bring to our state, our neighbors, and our wildlife, and I bear no shame for that.
If you wish to get involved with the Vermont Traditions Coalition, please reach out to me at mcovey802@gmail.com or sign up for email alerts at http://www.vermonttraditions.org