Part of the bill aimed to ban hunters from using dogs and bait — without a trappers’ license — to hunt coyotes in the state.

By Brooke Burns

The past few months, legislators were eyeing a bill to limit coyote hunting and defang the hunter-dominated board that sets rules on the sport in Vermont. The bill died in the House at the end of the legislative session, and the contentious practice of coyote hunting lives on.

Sen. Chris Bray, D–Addison, introduced S.258 Jan. 12. Part of the bill aimed to ban hunters from using dogs and bait — without a trappers’ license — to hunt coyotes in the state.

Hound hunting is not a new issue in the state. In 2022, the legislature stopped short of an outright ban on hunting coyotes with dogs — instead they passed Act 165, which ordered the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board to research and implement new regulations on coyote hunting. The law temporarily banned coyote hunting until the new rules came into play.

The board set the regulations in January, one of which required hunters to apply for and receive a permit if they want to pursue coyotes with dogs. Four nonprofit wildlife advocacy groups, Protect Our Wildlife, the Vermont Wildlife Coalition, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action, sued the state in response. They called the new rules inadequate and motioned for the ban on hunting coyotes with dogs to continue. A Washington County Superior court judge denied the motion in February. 

Sarah Gorsline, a representative for Project Coyote, a national nonprofit that lobbies to protect coyotes and other predators, spoke to lawmakers at a House Committee on Environment and Energy meeting April 19th.

“At Project Coyote, scientific studies show us that coyote hound hunting serves no legitimate purpose in modern conservation of wildlife, and it creates the conditions for conflict between packs of hunting hounds, livestock, pets, and other Vermonters who share the landscape in increasing numbers,” she said.

Gorsline also pointed out in a letter to legislators that even the state’s informational resources echo the pointlessness of hunting coyotes for population control, due to their reproductive habits. 

“As Vermont Fish & Wildlife’s Eastern Coyote info sheet, available on their website, states, ‘Coyotes can increase their reproductive rates in response to hunting, so populations rebound quickly from efforts to control their numbers directly by hunting or trapping,’” the letter says. 

Not only can coyotes rebound, Gorsline said, but the dogs that hunt them can attack other animals, or get injured or killed by them. 

“There is no reason why hounds should be put in the position of being mauled by a wild animal,” she said.

Chris Bradley, the president of the Vermont Federation of Sportsman Club, testified the same day. Bradley served as a consultant for the board when they were setting the new regulations. He called the researching and drafting of rules set after the passage of Act 165 intense — and that they complied with the wishes of the legislature.

“I had the privilege of serving on both working groups, as did Chair Sheldon,” Bradley said in the April 19 meeting. “Other than not accepting outright bans, concessions were made and everyone knew going in that no one would get all that they wanted.”

Bradley also said people who actively participate in hunting and trapping should be the ones deciding the rules around those activities. The legislature used to place game species management “into the hands of people who are knowledgeable to provide the best management possible,” he said.

The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.