In Winter 2021 a Vermont hound hunter shared this image on Facebook of one of his hounds terrorizing a wounded and bleeding coyote in southern Vermont.
Started in 2014 to oppose Wisconsin’s hound hunt for wolves, Wolf Patrol is now launching a new chapter in Vermont to fight against hound hunting and trapping abuses and for the return of extirpated wildlife such as the gray wolf, Canada lynx and catamount. The organization first gained notoriety for its monitoring of controversial yet legal hunting practices in Wisconsin such as hound hunting of wolves, bear baiting and wildlife killing contests.
Hunting coyotes with hounds is currently being regulated by Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Board which was ordered to establish rules for the practice by a Senate bill signed into law in June 2022.
Last winter in February 2022, Wolf Patrol began investigating hound hunting for coyotes in Vermont after being contacted by rural residents experiencing conflict with hound hunters. Wolf Patrol has documented and exposed coyote hound hunting abuses for years in other states and are responsible for criminal investigations against hound hunters in Wisconsin. We provided written and video testimony against hound hunting of coyotes and documented illegal and unethical practices occurring in Vermont.
Video evidence of coyote hound hunting abuses, gathered by Vermont Wolf Patrol in 2022.
On June 2, 2022 Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed a bill into law limiting coyote hunting with hounds. It is now up to the state’s Fish & Wildlife Board to establish rules for coyote hunting with hounds. Wolf Patrol will continue monitoring coyote hound hunting areas this winter in Vermont which is currently observing a moratorium on coyote hunting with hounds until rules are established.
This fisher was found stumbling along a snowmobile trail near Troy, Vermont in January 2022 with this trap on his face. A contract trapper with the state of Vermont told a warden it was her trap and was cited and fined.
Wolf Patrol will also support a campaign in Vermont against the commercial sale of wildlife, which is allowable under most states trapping rules. We believe the commercial North American fur industry to be culpable for the extirpation and extinction of numerous species across not only New England, but all of North America. Equally, Wolf Patrol believes that animals that have been commercially trapped for the last four centuries like the beaver, deserve recognition and protection for their contributions in our ongoing fight against climate change.
Wolf Patrol will not only focus on opposing practices which abuse and monetize wildlife in Vermont. More importantly, we want to envision and support projects that help return extirpated native wildlife to their rightful place in the Green Mountain State. We support the natural recolonization of wolves from Canada to Vermont. It’s probably already happened. The return of wolves and other native predators would help restore ecological imbalances such as providing natural predation on species like beavers.
Wolf Patrol is a collective of individuals who also support the struggles in Vermont against the abuse of members of the nonbinary/trans gender, refugee and migrant communities. We also believe in creating safe space for all people to exchange ideas and opinions on how to help Vermont wildlife. We recognize all Abenaki claims to this place we call Vermont and support all indigenous struggles for survival and sovereignty.
Wolf Patrol will be meeting the second Wednesday of each month in Montpelier, Vermont at a location and time to be announced. First meeting to be held on January 11, 2023 at 6:00pm Location: TBA
In August 2022, Wolf Patrol returned to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF) to again document how Wisconsin’s lenient bear baiting and hound training regulations continue to be the cause behind multiple bear hound depredations by wolves each year. Long before bear hunting season begins, Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) allows a two-month bear hound training season that begins July 1st and runs until the end of August.
These hounds are being used to chase bears in a known “Wolf Caution Area” where other dogs have recently been killed by wolves in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
So far this year, nine bear hounds have been killed by wolves in heavily bear baited areas of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and other public lands in northern Wisconsin. In early August 2022, Wolf Patrol investigated multiple bear hound depredations that had occurred in Forest, Oconto and Bayfield counties. In all of the national forest areas where depredations occurred, Wolf Patrol documented multiple active bear bait sites.
September 2022 Facebook post offering bear bait containing chocolate which is toxic to bears, wolves and other canines. It’s also perfectly legal for bear hunters to dump up to 10 gallons of bait at each site daily.
WDNR regulations do not require that bait sites be registered, no license is required and hunters can construct as many bear bait sites on public lands as they desire. In each, baiters are allowed to dump up to 10 gallons of human food waste, grease and chocolate, which is toxic to bears, wolves and other canines. Over the last eight years, Wolf Patrol has documented chronic bear baiting occurring in WDNR “Wolf Caution Areas” which are designated 4-mile radius areas surrounding the location of a bear hound depredation.
A history of bear hound depredations: Red circles indicate Wolf Caution Areas where bear hounds were killed or injured 2013-2022(Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources).
These unlimited wildlife feeding stations are literally attracting the wolf’s natural prey like deer, as well as serving as a food source for wolves. The WDNR estimates that as much as 4 million gallons of bear bait is dumped in our national forests and other public lands in Wisconsin each annually. Wisconsin’s bear baiting season begins in April and runs seven months until October. Hound hunters in Wisconsin use multiple bear baits to attract bears that their dogs can later track, chase and tree.
This is what U.S. Forest officials say is ok to feed to black bears if you’re a hunter intent on killing them.
Due to the lack of regulation on bear baiting in Wisconsin, a recent WDNR study concluded that 40% of a black bear’s diet in Wisconsin’s Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is comprised of bear bait provided by hunters. In addition, when a wolf kills a bear hound in Wisconsin, the hound hunter is compensated $2,500 for their loss, even if the hunter has already been compensated for a hound killed in the very same Wolf Caution Area.
Bears that become habituated to being fed by hound hunters are later easily treed and killed once killing season begins in September.
Over the last seven years, Wolf Patrol’s members and many other concerned residents have also introduced numerous citizen resolutions to Wisconsin’s Conservation Congress (WCC) to reduce or limit bear baiting and hound training. Every one of these resolutions supported by WCC voters has been rejected by the WCC Bear Committee whose stated purpose is the increase of bear hunting opportunities in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin’s Conservation Congress’ (WCC) Bear Advisory Committee are bear hunters whose only agenda is to increase bear killing opportunities (WisconsinDepartment of Natural Resources website).
Feeding the bears in Wisconsin is not only killing bears, its killing bear hounds and even wolves, which have become the target for poisoning and illegal killing in recent years due to the increase in wolf numbers and their attacks on bear hounds. All for a minority of hunters who like to run down bears with dogs so they can be shot out of a tree. In October 2021, A federal judge returned Wisconsin’s wolves to federal protections after a disastrous court-ordered recreational wolf hunt wiped out a third of the state’s wolf population.
A Wisconsin hound hunter complaining on Facebook about the wolves his baits are attracting.
Yet, as long as unlimited bear baiting is allowed in Wisconsin, wolf attacks on bear hounds will continue as will hound hunters illegal killing and poisoning of the federally protected wolves responsible. WDNR’s bear baiting and hound training practices are the number one cause of deadly conflicts between wolves and humans in Wisconsin, and both should not be allowed on our national forests where they are altering the natural behavior of bears, wolves, deer and other wildlife.
Feeding bears is the only way most hound hunters are able to kill a bear in Wisconsin.
For now, bear baiting continues to be a big business in Wisconsin, with local bait dealers selling semi-truck loads of expired human food waste to hunters by the 55-gallon barrel. And chocolate isn’t the only ingredient in bear bait that is toxic to wildlife, but Xylitol is another ingredient found in bait items like peanut butter, which is regularly used as bear bait in Wisconsin. Its shameful!
“SAVE WILDLIFE-KILL A WOLF” The logic of hound hunters in Wisconsin.
Join Wolf Patrol in calling for WDNR and U.S. Forest Service officials to get a backbone and end the intentional feeding of wildlife in our national forests by bear hunters. Its a no-brainer. Feeding wildlife in unlimited bait sites on public lands is creating a nightmare for wildlife and is harming federally protected gray wolves. Hey Wisconsin, stop feeding the bears!
You can email Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest officials at:
Wolf Patrol is partnering with FLOAT (For Love of All Things) to offer t-shirts and hoodies until August 1, 2022. A portion of each shirt sale ($8) will be donated to Wolf Patrol and will go towards monitoring the continuing conflicts between Wisconsin bear hunters and wolves in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Please visit the link below to see the many shirt styles and colors available!
What began as a proposed bill that would ban outright the hunting of coyotes with hounds in Vermont, has instead become proposed legislation that would simply limit the number of hound hunters to 100 and require Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department (VFWD) to establish regulations on the winter time activity. In recent years, conflicts between hound hunters, landowners and people and their pets have increased in Vermont, which lead to state legislators introducing S.281 in February 2022. The bill is currently under review by both the house and senate and is expected to be voted on soon.
The original bill had received broad public support, after numerous incidents came to light involving animal cruelty and trespass on the part of Vermont’s coyote hound hunters across the state. Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department saw the direction legislators were taking, and quickly proposed changes that would still allow coyote hunting with hounds, only require a permit and establish rules. Because of the fear of a total ban on coyote hunting with hounds, VFWD has now promised to address this crisis for wildlife and people in Vermont but their reccomendations do not go far enough to prevent trespass or cruelty occurring out of sight of the dog’s handler or owner.
The amended version of S.281 would still require landowners to post their lands and inform hound hunters that they are not welcomed. Those allowed would be required to have written permission. Un posted or “unenclosed” private lands would not require written permission. The bill would also leave it up to Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Board to determine a definition of “control” a hunter must have over their hounds. Most hound trespassing occurs when dog(s) pursue a coyote, bear or bobcat where hounds are allowed onto or through lands where they are not. GPS collars used on coyote and bear hunting hounds allow remote monitoring from miles away, but not control. Most of the fighting that occurs between hounds and coyotes happens out of sight of the dog handlers who are often sitting in their trucks during coyote hunts with handheld GPS monitoring devices that tell them when their hounds have a coyote cornered or “at bay”.
S.281 still has to make it through the full Senate, House and Governor’s office before it reaches the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board for a rule making process where definitions of control and method of take will be determined. Board members are appointed by the Governor to six-year terms and the board has recently been criticized for being controlled by and composed of hunters, trappers and those unwilling to listen to the majority of Vermonters opposed to coyote hunting with hounds. (Another bill, S.129 that would have addressed this misrepresentation of the citizens of Vermont has evolved into a letter to the Commissioner of Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department.)
The spirit and original intent of S.281 has been changed by VFWD’s amendments which would still allow free roaming coyote hounds to cross onto posted and unposted lands where they are not welcomed. The amendments allow such trespass to occur, only establishing penalties for it and making it the responsibility of landowners to notify coyote hound hunters that they are not welcome. Maintaining control over hunting hounds must remain the foundation of S.281. Loose hounds are not a constitutional right!
As currently proposed, S.281 would also still permit up to 100 coyote hound hunters using free roaming dogs during winter. Each permitted license holder would still be allowed to be assisted by other hound hunters working in tandem from vehicles and snowmobiles. This means that the allowance of 100 permits would in fact still authorize hundreds more hunters to assist the individual permitted coyote hunter. There is no data on the number of coyote hound hunters in Vermont, but 100 is simply an unmanageable number given the current limits on the ability of VFWD law enforcement to monitor this activity in the entire state of Vermont with only 31 wardens. On March 13, 2022 a Addison County landowner that has frequently dealt with coyote hunters trespassing with their hounds, called his region’s VFWD warden to request assistance when the group again returned. The warden responded that he was unavailable and over an hour away.
Current Senate bill 281 with VFWD amendments…
While this bill is certainly a good first step in preventing coyote hunters with hounds from trespassing on private property, it still does not adequately address the cruelty caused when even one hunting hound is allowed to chase to exhaustion another dog, making the animal more susceptible to attack and mauling, as has been documented occurring within the state of Vermont in recent years. There’s still time! Vermont residents can still contact their representatives and ask that changes to S.281 be made before it is signed into law.
A Wallingford, Vermont hound hunter’s photo shared on Facebook after his hounds fought with a wounded coyote on January 16, 2022
Proposed changes to S.281 for Vermont residents to ask their representatives to request:
A reduction in the number of permits allowed from 100 to 31, which better reflects the actual number of VTF&W conservation officers (wardens) available to patrol coyote hunting with hounds in the state of Vermont.
A definition of “control” that does not exclusively require GPS/shock/tone collars which still allow hounds to be far away and out of the sight of their handlers.
A person shall not release a dog onto land, whether the land is posted or not posted, for the purpose of pursuing coyote with the aid of dogs unless the dog owner or the handler of the hunting dog has obtained a courtesy permission card from the landowner or landowner’s agent allowing the pursuit of coyote with the aid of dogs on the lands.
A limit on the number of dogs that may be used to pursue coyote that shall not exceed two dogs and a prohibition on the substitution of any new dog for another dog during pursuit of a coyote.
The legal method of taking coyote pursued with the aid of dogs limited to rifle, muzzleloader, crossbow, or bow and arrow and penalties for any instance in which a dog mauls or otherwise injures a coyote.
Required identification on every dog that is readable from a distance of at least 50 feet and that will allow a landowner to identify the owner or handler of the dog.
Required reporting of every coyote killed during pursuit with the aid of dogs.
A prohibition on the use of bait.
Vermont’s House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish, and Wildlife will be reviewing S.281 March 30, 2022. Please email members:
On March 13, 2022 the same party of Addison County coyote hound hunters responsible for trespassing private lands in recent weeks, were again out hunting and harassing private landowners outside the small farming town of Shoreham. This time a private landowner came out to investigate suspected trespass and immediately became the target of their harassment.
Vermont’s pending Senate bill 281 would regulate coyote hunting with hounds and authorize 100 permits to hound hunters wishing to hunt coyotes with free roaming hounds. It would also require landowners to notify hound hunters that they are unwelcome, and require landowners to report trespassing to notify law enforcement before any future action could be taken to limit the trespass of free roaming coyote hunting hounds.
At 1:10, in the video VFWD officials claim wardens can adequately respond to hound trespass
Last week, officials with Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department (VFWD) testified to the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee that the agency’s warden service could adequately monitor the proposed 100 coyote hound hunters that S.281 would allow. Yet, when landowners called their local VFWD warden on March 13, 2022 during the confrontation with Addison County hound hunters, the warden responded that “his hands were full” and he was an hour away in Rutland, VT and could not respond.
Wolf Patrol is asking opponents of the trespass and cruelty that is inherent with coyote hunting with hounds, to contact Vermont’s legislators and ask that S.281 be amended to reduce the number of hounding permits that would be allowed, from 100 to 31 which is the actual number of wardens responsible for patrolling Vermont’s mountainous and rural 14 counties.
Photo shared on Facebook by a coyote hound hunter on March 14, 2022
CONTACT VERMONT LEGISLATORS:
To find your legislator:
legislature.vermont.gov/people/
Vermont’s Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee:
Senator Chris Bray cbray@leg.state.vt.us (802) 453-3444
Senator Rich Westman rawestman@gmail.com (802) 644-2297
Senator Mark MacDonald mmacdonald@leg.state.vt.us (802) 272-1101
Senator Brian Campion bcampion@leg.state.vt.us (802) 375-4376
Senator Richard McCormack rmccormack@leg.state.vt.us (802) 793-6417
January 2022 photo shared on Facebook by a hound hunter from Wallingford, Vermont
What began as a proposed bill that would ban outright the hunting of coyotes with hounds in Vermont, has instead become proposed legislation that would limit the number of hunters and require Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department to establish regulations on the winter time activity. In recent years, conflicts between hound hunters and landowners and outdoor recreationists have increased in Vermont, leading to legislators introducing S.281 in February 2022.
S.281 as passed by Vermont’s Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on 03/11/22
The bill has received overwhelming public support, after numerous organizations including Wolf Patrol exposed multiple incidents involving cruelty on the part of Vermont’s hound hunters. Vermont’s Fish & Wildlife Department saw the direction legislators were taking and quickly proposed changes that they have for years refused to implement. Only because of the fear of a total ban on coyote hunting with hounds, has the agency now promised to address this crisis for wildlife and people in Vermont.
Snowmobile used in conjunction with hounds by a Troy, Vermont hound hunter January 2022
The bill still has to go through a rule making process that is currently controlled by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board, which lacks representation from nonconsumptive wildlife users and is mostly comprised of hunters, trappers and those unwilling to listen to the majority of Vermonters opposed to coyote hunting with hounds. The bill must also be signed into law by Republican Governor Phil Scott.
Senators Chris Bray & Richard McComack discussing dissatisfaction with S.281 after it’s passage
Wolf Patrol believes the spirit of this bill has been changed by VTF&W’s amendments which would still allow free roaming coyote hounds to cross onto lands where they are not welcomed. The amendments allow such trespass to occur, only establishing penalties for it and making it the responsibility of landowners to notify coyote hound hunters that they are not welcome.
Vermont hound hunters with recently killed coyotes
We also believe that 100 hound hunters using free roaming dogs to hunt coyotes during winter is simply an unmanageable number, given the current limits on the ability of VTF&W wardens to monitor this activity in the entire state of Vermont. Each permitted license holder would still be allowed to have assistance by other hound hunters working in tandem from vehicles and snowmobiles. This means that allowing 100 permits would actually still authorize hundreds more hunters to assist the individual licensed coyote hunter.
While this bill is a first step in preventing coyote hunters with hounds from trespassing on private property, it still does not adequately address the cruelty caused when even one hunting hound is allowed to chase to exhaustion another dog, making the animal more susceptible to attack and mauling, as has been documented occurring within the state of Vermont during the practice of coyote hunting with hounds.
Truck, snowmobile and hound used by a Troy, Vermont hound hunter
These are the changes to S.281 we are asking our supporters to ask their legislators to request VTF&W make when adopting new rules governing the hunting of coyotes with hounds:
A reduction in the number of permits allowed from 100 to 31, which reflects the number of actual VTF&W conservation officers (wardens) available to patrol coyote hunting with hounds in the state of Vermont.
A lottery system similar to that used for moose permits for the distribution of permits, not distibuted “at the discretion of the Commissioner” as the current language states.
A definition of “control” that does not only require GPS/shock/tone collars which still allow hounds to be out of the sight of their handlers.
A requirement that all coyote hunters using hounds obtain written permission from private landowners whether the lands are legally posted or not.
A limit on the number of dogs used to pursue coyote that is one and the adoption of the proposed prohibition on the substitution of any new dog for another dog during pursuit of coyote.
No baiting. This only encourages conflicts with coyotes rather than addressing them.
It’s only the second week that Wolf Patrol has been monitoring coyote hunting with hounds in Vermont and it’s also the second week that we’ve documented potentially illegal activity by the same group of Addison County hounders. Last week it was a hound hunter attempting to shoot a coyote from a public road, and this week it was trespassing on private lands where coyote hunters did not have permission to hunt.
Addison County hound hunters leaving property where they were not welcome.03/05/22
Last week, the hound hunters themselves claimed to have permission to hunt on the lands that we filmed them on, despite local residents who have experienced trespassing from the same group having invited us to patrol their property in the first place. On Saturday March 5, 2022 we caught them redhanded on lands that they did not have permission to hunt on. That is because hound hunters have no control over their dogs which can roam wherever the coyote leads them. This time it was on another private landowners orchard where their dog chased the offending hound off of their property in pursuit of a coyote that this time got away. Nonetheless, this was a clear case of trespass, where hound hunters were not welcome where they were hunting.
Hound hunter standing with unshouldered rifle in the middle of Basin Harbor Rd. 02/26/22
Wolf Patrol also reported the questionable activity we witnessed last week to the region’s Vermont Fish & Wildlife conservation officer (warden) and they confirmed that it is indeed illegal to discharge a firearm from anything but a “Class 4” road. When our monitors found the hound hunters last week, just as their dogs were chasing a coyote through private lands, we filmed one of the hound hunters standing in the middle of Basin Harbor Road (not Class 4) with a scoped bolt action rifle, prepared to shoot any coyote his dog chased out of the nearby farmland. The warden also informed Wolf Patrol that it was illegal to carry a loaded firearm while hunting in any vehicle, which we suspect was also the case as this hound hunter kept his rifle tucked next to his right leg on the driver’s side of the truck he was hunting from.
This hound hunter carries his uncased rifle next to him, ready to shoot coyotes from the road.02/27/22
In addition, this party of hound hunters tried to run Wolf Patrol’s monitors off the road by driving in the middle of the public highway making us take evasive action to avoid a head on collision, flipping us off, honking at us, and otherwise doing their best to intimidate us. A Vermont Fish & Wildlife warden was in the area, alerted to the possible illegal activity by hounders by Wolf Patrol. The warden spoke to the offending hounders, but it was the landowner who was told that hound hunters have the right to hunt on any lands not posted properly according to Vermont state law.
This is why Wolf Patrol is asking Vermont residents to contact their state representatives and the Senate Natural Resources Committee to let them know that we support the passage of Senate bill 281 that would ban the hunting of coyotes with hounds. Make no mistake, coyote hunting with hounds is more akin to dog fighting than it is to any kind of hunting for food or sustenance. It is also the source of multiple conflicts with private landowners, not only in Addison County, but across the entire Green Mountain State.
An Eden, Vermont hound hunter with two recently killed coyotes.
The coyote hunters we have documented twice now rarely leave their trucks except when it’s to retrieve their loose dogs or shoot a fleeing coyote from the road. This isn’t an attack on all hunting, it’s a campaign against the kind of hunting that gives all ethical hunters in Vermont a bad name because of the inherent cruelty involved with using dogs, trucks, snowmobiles and radios to run down another dog.
January 2022 photo shared on Facebook by a Wallingford, Vermont hound hunter.
Please email Vermont’s Senate Natural Resources Committee today to let them know that you do not support legalized dog-fighting in Vermont!
Support Senate Bill 281!
Senator Chris Bray cbray@leg.state.vt.us (802) 453-3444
Senator Rich Westman rawestman@gmail.com (802) 644-2297
Senator Mark MacDonald mmacdonald@leg.state.vt.us (802) 272-1101
Senator Brian Campion bcampion@leg.state.vt.us (802) 375-4376
Senator Richard McCormack rmccormack@leg.state.vt.us (802) 793-6417
Senator Becca Balint bbalint@leg.state.vt.us (802) 257-4162
Wolf Patrol’s report from the February 2021 recreational wolf kill in Wisconsin.
Exactly one year ago today, I was witness to one of the worst examples of wolf management since the gray wolf rebounded from the brink of extinction and back into their rightful home in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It was the first day of a court-ordered recreational wolf season that was organized by Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in less than a week. Earlier in 2021, WDNR testified at a Natural Resources Board meeting that no wolf hunt would move forward without a new management plan and public input from citizen’s and tribal interests.
Wisconsin wolf killed at night with aid of thermal imaging and electronic caller during the 2021 season.
What we saw instead, was a rushed process made possible because of court actions brought about by a pro-hunting lobbyist organization from out of state, operating on the request of politicians hell bent on killing as many wolves as possible the moment they were removed from federal protections.
It took less than a day for Wolf Patrol to document illegality in the poorly planned hunt, all of which was reported to WDNR wardens and all of which resulted in nothing more than verbal warnings. Even though we provided evidence of a convicted poacher who had lost his hunting privileges participating in the two-day slaughter of over 200 wolves, WDNR still turned a blind-eye to the blatant disrespect hound hunters had for hunting regulations during what can only be called the largest hound hunt for wolves in U.S. history.
Wisconsin wolves legally killed by hound hunters in February 2021.
As the quotas quickly filled in each “wolf management zone” many witnessed the successfully orchestrated campaign by wolf hunters to delay reported kills or simply not report them at all, so that the actual kill would go way beyond the legal quota, which was almost doubled due to the concerted effort by Wisconsin wolf hunters to kill as many wolves as possible during the two-day season.
Had it not been for the February 2022 court order that returned federal protection to wolves in Wisconsin, we would have been witness to another slaughter this coming November. Wolf Patrol was a signatory to that legal petition to the federal court, which was largely successful because of the horrible example of state wolf management Wisconsin demonstrated on February 28, 2021.
Young wolves like the one pictured made up the majority of wolves killed in 2021.
Despite Wisconsin’s wolves gaining a reprieve from another WDNR managed slaughter this November, wolves are a long way from enjoying the federal protections ordered in February 2022. Instead they continue to face skyrocketing rates of illegal hunting and a poisoning campaign that has been documented in the Northwoods for over three years now.
In addition, the number one cause of human/wolf conflicts in Wisconsin will continue to be WDNR’s almost nonexistent bear hunting regulations which allow an unlimited and unregulated 7-month bear baiting season coupled with a two month bear hound training season at the peak of Summer wolf activity. Both of these practices will again result in numerous instances of bear hounds being killed by wolves, and with it more public calls by Wisconsin hound hunters for an illegal campaign of wolf killing.
Bear hound depredations by wolves 2013-2021 according to WDNR.
Wolf Patrol was the first advocacy group to monitor Wisconsin’s hound hunt for wolves in 2014. That was the last recreational hunt for wolves before another judge ordered the animals returned to federal protections. Beginning in 2015, Wolf Patrol began investigating the annual bear hound depredations by wolves that coincide with the start of summer bear hound training season, and we quickly discovered that wolves as well as bears were being drawn to the estimated thousands of unregistered bear bait sites that are often placed on public lands.
This was one of the wolf hunters Wolf Patrol documented in 2014.
In Wisconsin, we also documented each year how despite WDNR’s establishment of “Wolf Caution Areas” following bear hound depredations, bear hunters continued bear baiting and hound training in the very same areas wolves had only days before killed free roaming bear hounds. In the years leading up to the February 2021 court-ordered recreational wolf slaughter in Wisconsin, we also witnessed the citation by bear hunters and politicians of these preventable hound depredations as the reason it was necessary to again have a wolf hunt in the state.
A wolf feeds alongside a black bear from one of the thousands of unregistered bear bait sites in Wisconsin.
This Summer will be no different. Come July, as thousands of hounds are released again in the Northwoods to trail bears from thousands of intentional feeding sites allowed by WDNR and the US Forest Service on our public lands, more bear hounds will die. It it important to remember that WDNR does not require any license or permit to bait bears in Wisconsin. Not only that, even nonresidents are welcome to bring hounds from out of state to chase and bait bears through known wolf territory and if and when they get killed, the culpable hound hunters will be compensated up to $2,500 for each hound killed. Even if more of their hounds get killed in the very same wolf caution areas, they will be compensated.
Since 1985, hound hunters have been paid more than any other group for wolf caused depredations.
It’s time to recognize that Wisconsin’s war over wolves will not end until the state’s lack of restrictions on bear baiting and hound training are addressed. It’s also time to recognize that the crisis created by the lack of regulations will not be addressed by the WDNR’s Bear Advisory Committee which is filled with bear and hound hunters. Nor will the lack of bear hunting regulations be reckoned with through Wisconsin’s Conservation Congress (WCC), which every year rejects citizen resolutions passed in multiple counties calling for more restrictions on bear baiting and hound training. Again, the WCC’s Bear Advisory Committee’s stated mission is to support bear hunting and increase bear hunting opportunities.
A Wisconsin bear hunter tries to convince Wolf Patrol to stop filming his hound training activities on public lands.
Addressing the root cause of Wisconsin’s ongoing conflict between wolves and bear hunters will have to be a political campaign, coupled with an ongoing citizen effort to force local authorities to address the continuing conflict hound hunters create not only for wolves, but private property owners, outdoor enthusiasts and even other bear hunters.
Wolf Patrol will continue its now 7-year campaign to expose the real culprits behind Wisconsin conflicts with wolves…hound hunters. Since 2015, Wolf Patrol’s citizen monitors have reported from the state’s many wolf caution areas where bear hounds are killed by wolves, and each year we have documented and reported gross noncompliance to even the minimal bear baiting regulations offered by WDNR. We have also continued to document the conditioning of wolves to being fed from Wisconsin’s bear baiting stations which at last estimate amounted to over 4 million gallons of bait being dumped on mostly public lands to attract bears so hound hunters can chase and kill them.
Beef calf carcass being illegally used to bait wolves during the February 2021 Wisconsin wolf slaughter.
It is also important to note that the poisoning of wolves and other wildlife is something that bear hunters have been promoting and will continue to promote especially when they are prevented from having a recreational wolf killing season in Wisconsin.
For these reasons, Wolf Patrol will again be monitoring the preventable conflict between bear hunters and wolves during the 2022 bear hound training and killing season. We are also asking all of our supporters to remain active on the state level and lobby your elected officials to address the lack of regulation on bear baiting and hound training in Wisconsin. Also, if you are a resident in an area with active bear baiting and hound training and hunting, consider offering to post not only your own land, but your neighbors as well and be ready to gather evidence when the inevitable hound hunter trespassing occurs. Report every incident to your local sheriff and keep records of every encounter with hound hunters.
And most importantly, get out to the Northwoods and celebrate the return of the gray wolf to its rightful home in Wisconsin! Despite the best of efforts by their enemies, wolves are here to stay. But their future is in your hands and should not be left to state authorities and judges to decide. The future of successfully recovered wolf populations requires continued vigilance by the citizens of Wisconsin and other states where they have returned. Only you can prevent wolf extinction!
In January 2021, Senate bill 281 was introduced which would prohibit the use of hounds as a means to hunt coyotes. Hunting coyotes with hounds has grown in the Northeastern part of the United States in pace with the coyotes firm establishment as an apex predator where once wolves and mountain lions also roamed. Both of those species were eradicated from New England in the early 1900’s, but coyotes migrating eastward interbred with both wolves and domestic dogs to create what is now known as the Eastern coyote. Nowadays in Vermont, like most other states, coyotes can be hunted every day of the year with no bag limit. But it’s the use of hounds especially in winter time where most of the cruelty has been witnessed.
S.281 is currently under consideration by the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. On February 24 & 25, 2022 the committee heard testimony related to the bill, which is expected to be voted on the week of March 8.
The lack of fair chase, inherent cruelty resulting from pursuing prey dozens of miles, and the conflict created for private landowners by hound trespass have all been cited as reasons for S.281. The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee has heard testimony from all sides with many supporters of the bill identifying as hunters themselves, but who consider modern hound hunting practices to be highly unethical. Opponents of the restriction on coyote hunting, say this is just part of a nationwide campaign against all hunting, and that hunting coyotes with hounds is only as cruel as nature is towards other animals and ultimately, the Eastern coyote is a pest that kills deer which hunters want instead for themselves.
Wolf Patrol began an investigation into hound hunting of coyotes with hounds in Vermont and last month released a video with some of our findings. Many hound hunters in Vermont use social media sites to share photos and videos. That is where Wolf Patrol found graphic videos from three Vermont residents depicting coyotes being cornered and killed after long chases across deep snow, where hunters with trucks and snowmobiles bring in more dogs as the chase intensifies. One Vermont hound hunter posted pictures of his hounds attacking a bleeding exhausted coyote and another photo of himself standing over the dead animal in a pool of blood.
A hound belonging to a Wallingford, Vermont hunter over an already wounded coyote.
Wolf Patrol submitted written testimony to the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee, but we wanted to also take a look for ourselves at the growing problem hunting coyotes with hounds has created for Vermont landowners and the public opposed to the cruelty associated with the sport. On February 26th, 2022 I grabbed our cameras and headed to Addison County, where residents have reported multiple conflicts with coyote hunters who trespass and block roads. Since beginning our investigation of coyote hound hunting practices in Vermont, Wolf Patrol has discovered that the practice is quite common in the winter months when no other big game seasons are open.
Many coyote hunters in Vermont use snowmobiles to get their dogs closer to the fleeing coyote and then shoot them, as this Troy, Vermont hunter did on January 30, 2022.
I was just outside of Shoreham, Vermont, less than a mile from the Lake Champlain shoreline when I came over a hill and saw a hound truck parked in the same direction but on the left side of the narrow dirt road. As I slowed down, a hound wearing a GPS collar popped out of the woods to my right which was clearly posted closed to hunting and trespass. The hound ran past his owner’s truck and back onto posted lands, alongside a clear track left by a coyote fleeing the hound.
Coyote pursued by hunting hound in Northern Vermont.
Over the next hour, multiple trucks some with hounds were jockeying alongside the roads trying to place themselves in line for a shot, once the pursued coyote crossed the road the hunter’s were watching from their trucks. The antennas from their handheld GPS receivers could be seen in their hands and the hound hunter I spoke too, had his uncased rifle snugly tucked next to his right leg inside the cab of his truck where he could access it quickly. This was the same hounder I filmed standing in the road with his scoped rifle who later retrieved his hound that had come out of the woods where I had seen it cross earlier that morning.
A photo shared on the private Facebook page: Northeast Hunting with Hounds, February 26, 2022.
As I drove past the hound hunter with the rifle, he slowed down and raised his hand like he wanted to talk, so I pulled over and he reversed until he was in line with my driver’s side window. He asked if I was filming, and I acknowledged that I was and explained to him the reasons for documenting his hound hunting activities were in support of S.281. We ended our conversation with the hunter saying he could later show me some dead coyotes, but I didn’t encounter him again that day.
February 26, 2022 Facebook post with comment by Vermont hounder.
S. 281 would prohibit the use of hounds to hunt coyotes, with a proposed amendment authorizing state game wardens to issue one-time only depredation permits where hounds could be used to hunt coyotes that pose a threat to life or property on private lands. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is also proposing stricter conditions and a regulated season on hunting coyotes with hounds, but that does not address the inherent cruelty associated with a sport that allows hunters to use multiple vehicles, GPS-collared packs of hounds, snowmobiles and bait to pursue one animal sometimes for dozens of miles until they can run no longer.
Please write to Vermont’s Natural Resources and Energy Committee today to let them know that you support an outright ban on recreational hunting of coyotes with hounds, which looks more like dog-fighting than hunting. This bill will be voted on in committee the week of March 8th, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes law. Let’s remain vigilant and stand with the coyotes until they are safe from dog hunters in Vermont!
NATURAL RESOURCES & ENERGY COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Senator Chris Bray cbray@leg.state.vt.us (802) 453-3444
Senator Rich Westman rawestman@gmail.com (802) 644-2297
Senator Mark MacDonald mmacdonald@leg.state.vt.us (802) 272-1101
Senator Brian Campion bcampion@leg.state.vt.us (802) 375-4376
Senator Richard McCormack rmccormack@leg.state.vt.us (802) 793-6417
Senator Becca Balint bbalint@leg.state.vt.us (802) 257-4162
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.)
Wolf Patrol 