Vermont’s Legalized Dog Fighting Exposed

Every winter, hound hunters across America turn their dogs loose to chase, torment and fight other dogs. Make no mistake, just because their prey are coyotes, doesn’t change the fact that it is still a form of legalized dog-fighting. Whether in Vermont (as this video depicts) or Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Ohio or any of the dozens of other states where this horrendous practice is happening right now, hunting coyotes with hounds is a cruel practice that no ethical sportsman or human being should support.

*Terance Wilbur of Willington, Vermont shared this picture on Facebook on January 16, 2022*

These aren’t animals being killed to feed families, they are being killed for the simple pleasure hound hunters derive from watching their dogs run down other dogs. At best, some of the coyotes will have their pelts taken and sold on the international fur market where they often end up as fur trim on the hoods of parkas and other winter clothing. At worst, they are simply left to rot.

*Wilbur celebrating another death near a pool of coyote blood, January 16, 2022*

Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department, as well as any state wildlife agency should be ashamed to allow this practice today. Hunting coyotes with hounds is a clear violation of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, which states that wildlife is for the explicit non-commercial use of citizens. It is also a wanton waste of wildlife that every humane citizen should oppose.

*Coyotes suffer persecution with a year-round open season in most states.*

Yet every winter, social media is flooded with videos such as these, shared by the hound hunters themselves, depicting unspeakable cruelty against public trust wildlife. Wolf Patrol monitors hound hunters across America and we see it as our responsibility to expose these crimes against natures so you can speak out against them.

Please contact not only Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Board, but your own state wildlife agency, to politely ask that hunting coyotes with hounds be outlawed before more animals suffer a horrific death at the jaws of other canines. And contact your own state wildlife agency to see if this practice is allowed in your own home state (it probably is.)