Money for coyote control approved

By Justin Faulconer, Lynchburg News & Advance

Published: February 1, 2008

An estimated $2 for each coyote roaming around Virginia is aimed at preventing their attacks on livestock.

A coyote damage control program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently received $150,000 in funding for this year. The federal funds are the result of efforts by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th District, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-5th District and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th District.

The program serves 35 counties, many of them west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where coyote specialist Chad Fox said the animals are abundant.

“It’s becoming more of a problem in that part of the state,” said Fox, the USDA’s district supervisor for the animal and plant health inspection service.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries officials estimate there are up to 75,000 coyotes in the state, according to a news release from the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

Fox said the program is “very effective” in reducing the number of livestock attacks.

Last year, the number of sheep, calves and goats killed by coyotes was 249. The previous year’s total was 369.

Since the program launched in 1990, there has been a significant decrease in sheep deaths by coyotes. The number of sheep killed per farm dropped from 17 in 1993 to 2 in 2007.

The program employs someone to work directly with area farmers, Fox said, and that

person stays busy in the counties of Bedford, Franklin, Pittsylvania, Patrick and Henry.

The program is targeted only at preserving livestock through measures such as fencing, “predator-threatening devices” and guardian animals. It isn’t designed to control the coyote population, Fox said.

Coyote sightings have concerned some Lynchburg residents over the past few years.

Several residents in the Old Graves Mill Road area said their pets were killed by coyotes they spotted nearby. A dog was found dead by railroad tracks close to Little Creek Road last February. Another woman on that street said she witnessed her cat’s death by a coyote attack in May 2005.

Jim Bowman, a wildlife biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said in a 2007 interview that coyotes are drawn to suburban areas because of easy access to food and no-shooting laws.

Some counties have bounty ordinances placed on coyotes. Campbell County instated such an ordinance two years ago that offers $50 to a person for turning one in. Nearly 100 have been turned in so far, said Benny David, Campbell County’s animal control officer.