Coyotes pose a problem

EDMONTON (CP) — A
new joke is making the
rounds of Alberta’s coyote-
wary sheep farmers,

With the average price of
coyote pelts pushing $75 and
the government starting to
tighten up limits on hunting
the doglike animals, perhaps
farmers, should abandon
thelr lambs and start raising
cute little coyote pups, the
story goes.

Like jokes about rain in
dry years, the humor is not
appreciated.

Coyotes are probably the
worst problem faced by
Alberta sheep farmers, said
Don Scheer, supervisor for
sheep in the provincial
agriculture department's
livestock branch.

Alberta’s sheep flock in-
cludes an estimated 100,000
ewes, tying it with the On-
tario flock as the largest in
the country and offering
many opportunities for quick
meals to the province’s
thriving coyote population.
t.'““Parmers- will lose
sometimes 10 to 20 per cent
of their lamb crop, and seven
lambs lost in a night, is not
impossible,” Scheer ‘/gaid..

Worat losses occur inate ;

winter when coyotes have ©

trouble filling up on their
usual prey, Small rodents.
a"Ever' since farmers

started running livestock in
Alberta, it’s been them
against the coyote. Grain
farmers are another mat-
ter—they benefit from the
coyotes’ taste for small
rodents which would
otherwise eat grain.

Coyotes risk their lives
every day, running from
poison, trapping and.
unrestricted hunting.

Known as 4 wily animal,
the coyotes nevertheless are
caught in thousands every
year, ;

Provincial officials
estimate the coyote
population fluctuates from a
mid-winter low of 60,000 to at
least double that following
the birth of their fitters.
Other estimates range as”
high as 250,040.

The coyote harvest has
averaged 22,00) animals for
each of the last 10 years, said
John Gunsen, problem
wildlife biologist for the
recreation, parks and
wildlife department.

He said the number was
closing in on the 36,000 mark
which wildlife officials feel is
the largest harvest the
coyotes can sustaini each
year, and that wad why
hinting ‘controls’ were
tightened up this fall.

Farmers with coyote prob-
lems are stil] able to shoot

them year-round, but for
others, the old September-to-
May season has been
shortened to last fram Nov. 1
to Fb 26, In addition,
hunters who use hounds now
need a special permit.

The government regulated
the hunt partly because
coyotes have become a $1.5-
million-ayear industry, and
partly because of protests
from groups like Coyote
Concern. .

“We think the ‘coyote
should be safely installed in
the wildlife department so it
is protected by the same
regulations as other big-
game animals,” says Gillian
Seaton, president of Coyote
Concern.

Calgary fur trader Stan
Henders relies heavily on
coyote pelts and said he

doesn't think much of Coyote

Concern’s goals or what he
describes as’ their methods.

“We hunt deer, we hunt
ducks, we hunt pheasants,
we hunt all the prey
species—but if you shoot a
predator like the coyote
you're a ... you know.

Henders has written let-
lers to small-town
newspapers accusing Mrs.
Seaton of “harassing and
even insulting my farm
customers in person.”

But there are indications

thal official attitudes toward
coyotes ere changing and
moves like the regulation of

- hunting are here to stay.

“My personal feeling is
that, in terms of attitudes, it
is high time the coyote was
treated as a valuable fur-
bearing animal, instead of
simply as a predator,” said
Arlen Todd, fur biologist

- with the recreation, parks

and wildlife department.

“Coyotes abviously do far
more good than harm, You
Can compare a $40,000 an-
nual loss (the sum the
Bovernment pays farmers
for the loss of livestock to
coyotes) with the $1 million
annually taken in furs."”

There are also differences
of opinion about how mich
individual farmers can do to
prevent predation by
coyotes, including the use of
poison, The agriculture
department issues about 500
licences a year to farmers
who want to poison coyotes,
but some wildlife spokesmen
condemn poisoning as un-
necessarily cruel and in-
discriminate.

There is ijittle concern,
however, about the im-
mediate survival of the
coyote in Alberta,

Se See ERAT re Sere oe ROE A

Sees oar a

iat
Te

ALMOST LIKE
_IN THE MOVIE

OTTAWA (CP) — Two
months ago today Nicole
Sulter, a mother of three,
was put to sleep before a
minor gynecological
operation at this city's
Riverside Hospital.

She never woke up.

A hospital spokesman
said Mrs, Suiter's heart
stopped while she was on
the operating table—
something that happens
in one of every 10,000
eases,

The spokesman said
she was revived seconds
later, but lhe oxygen
supply te her brain had
been cut. off long enough
to severely damage it and
she will never regain
cansciousness ‘unless
you believe in miracles."

"I'm not a religious
man but every night I sit

beside her, rub her hands
and pray—that's all I
have left,'’ said her
husband Larry. ‘They
tell me she can’t hear me,
I talk to her and i think
she understands some-
times.”

He now is unemployed
and under a doctor's care
for a nervous condition
caused by the months of
anguish. Their three
young children are being
eared for by Nicol's
parents.

“She was nervous about —

the operation,” he said.
“She never had one
before, except the babies
~» you know, it’s funny,
she would take a Bufferin
and that would knock her
out ... she was scared to
be put to sleep.”

Salmonid Enhancement Update ’78

not, done regar

Each persdn or

missions will be

Salmonid Enhan

dh

PART 1.
oral brief outlining the’

oe

Time:

Place;

PART 2. WHAT'S NEXT:
Where shov'e\\ id Enhancement go from here?

.

organizatio~

©
acce" RS
oe

1a

7:30 p.m,

Government of Canada
Fisheries andl Oceans (Pacific Region)
Salmonid Enhancement Pragram

A PROGRESS REPORT
What has been done as -

The Herald, Friday, November 10, 1978, Page 7

Nova Scotians

deeper i

HALIDAB (CP) —
Provincial Consumer Affairs
Minister Bruce Cochren says
Nova Scotians are more
debt-ridden than other
Canadians.

The average Nova Scotian
family owes about $5,200, not
including mortgage
payments, he said. The
Canadian average is $4,500.

“We are living in an age of
high expectations and easy
credit, a dangerous com-
bination. The statistics show
we don't handle either very
well.”

Cocheen said consumer
credit in Canada has tripled
over the last 10 years, The
increase -was especially
disturbing in Nova Scotia,
where debt is above average
and incomes below average.

Consumers in Nova Scotia
currently owe close to
$1.25billion, he said.

The consequences of this
large debt load are reflected

Two years ago, members of the Salmonid Enhancement Program of the Federal De-
partment of Fisheries and Oceans, visited your community to hear your concerns and
your opinions on the proposed Federal/Provincial Salmonid Enhancement Program.

In response to; your request that they return to report on the hearings of ‘76, the
ement team is coming back to outline to you what it 19) and has

ing your concerns. We also want mare input, Wh A

Salmonid Enhancement to do now? How? When? Where? Why? ay

The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. and is divided into two 4°

<4
o>

v8 10 minutes in which to present a written or
ins and/or recommendations.
January 12, 1979 and may be mailed to:

vhid Enhancement Program
wsheries & Oceans Canada

| Qe
_ . 1090 West Pender Street
Vancouver, B.C. V6E 2P1
Each meeting will be fully recorded and a report published in 1979,

Join Saimonid Enhancement Tuesday evening, November 14, 1978

Caledonia High School

ayer the 1976 meeting?

Longer written sub-

n debt

in rising bankruptcy -
statistics and in mare people
turning to the consumer
affairs department to help
them out of financial trouble.

The department operates a
debt-consolidation service
known as the Orderly
Payment of Debt Program.
It arranges for over-
committed debtors to con-
solidate their debts and then
to repay them over an ex-
tended period of time.

The program protecta con-
sumers from foreclosures,
provided they adhere strictly
to budgets worked out with a
consumer counsellor from
the department.

About 740 Nova Scotian
families are using the
program tohelp them pay off
debts totalling just over
$5million.

The average Nova Scotian
debtor is 34 years old, has a
net income of $4,200 a year
and owes §7,000 to Six
creditors, statistics show.

-u Want