A bill that started out as an attempt to help area farmers deal with growing problems from coyote packs has elicited strong opposition from the animal activist groups.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Royce Adams, Owen County’s representative in the House, would make it legal for wildlife control workers to sell coyotes year-round. The stipulation is that they are licensed and that they have a permit to do so issued by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. A state permit would also be required of the buyers.
In addition, hunters and trappers would be able to sell live coyotes only during furbearer trapping season, which runs from November through February.
Currently, the state law forbids the sale of coyotes. Farmers are allowed to kill coyotes on their property if they are endangering herds, but they must report the destruction of the animals outside of trapping season to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ local conservation officer.
The bill was approved by the House last week and moves to the Senate for consideration. There, however, it probably won’t get heard before the session ends.
“I’ve heard from farmers in support of this bill, but I’ve also been hearing from a lot of people who are in opposition to it,” said Sen. Damon Thayer, Owen County’s representative in the Senate. “Because we’re going to be working overtime on the budget, I don’t know if this will move forward.”
Thayer said he thought the bill would die as a result of not being heard in the Senate, but would come back up next winter during the interim session of the General Assembly.
“The lack of understanding of what it does, as well as the fact it was filed late means it’s pretty much dead,” he said. “It needs to go through the interim process in order to get approval.”
Adams said he introduced House Bill 608 because of the concern he was hearing from farmers about the impact on their herds.
“They are losing calves and pets and other small animals,” Adams said. “I didn’t imagine it would cause this much turmoil.”
The representative said he’d been called “barbaric” by one caller who opposed the bill.
A call for opposition of the bill at the online site of www.bancrueltraps.com describes the bill as “cruel” and says it utilized the “gruesome practice of coyote penning,” which reportedly involves training hounds using live coyotes in enclosed pens.
John Gassett, the head of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, said that the coyote population is growing and that livestock and family pets have become targets, but the bill could allow the spread of canine distemper and rabies if the animals are sold across state lines.
Indiana as well as eight other states currently has similar laws, which allow coyotes to be bought and sold.
Trappers could receive up to $100 for a live animal as compared to $10 to $15 for each pelt, adding incentive to eliminating them from an area.
“It’s barbaric if we let their populations continue to expand,” Adams said. “If a person tried to run them off, if they were hungry enough, they would attack that person. I know one farmer who had a herd of goats and lost 12 to 15 of them to coyotes.”
Adams added that he is surprised and disappointed by the reaction to the bill.
“I thought I was doing a real service for the farmers,” he said of his decision to sponsor the bill. “I wasn’t trying to promote animal cruelty.”

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