Letter to the Editor

Editor:
A recent letter from an officer of Animal Wellness Action criticized the Lamar Township Volunteer Fire CO’s upcoming coyote hunt as a cruel and wanton waste of wildlife.

While I’m not a member of the fire company, I am an avid hunter and write to provide some facts in defense of the hunt. Hunters are the reason the PA Game Commission exists and the PGC’s mission statement is clear: “Manage and protect wildlife and their habitats …for current and future generations.”

The PGC’s biologists have determined that coyote populations in PA are such that there is a need for an open season to control their numbers. Why? According to SCIENCING.COM: “ Coyotes are considered one of PA’s most effective predators….severely decimating the PA deer population…they tend to prey on fawns.”

I would suggest to Animal Wellness Action that a fawn’s death by coyote is far more cruel than a coyote’s near instant death from a hunters bullet. It is common knowledge that coyotes also feed on livestock and domestic cats and dogs. Coyotes need to be controlled and that’s the job of hunters.

In addition it should be noted hunters are the first conservationists. Providing not just wildlife management to protect habitat and our environment, but also according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service paying over $1.8 billion a year for wildlife conservation. As former President Teddy Roosevelt said: “The excellent people who protest against hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wildlife, are ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable creatures from total extermination.”

Mike Hanna Sr.
Lock Haven, PA