Although it’s not guaranteed to produce positive results, Dufferin County Council has adopted a bylaw intended to cull the coyote population of the predators among them.

Adoption of the bylaw at the council’s February session was meant to accomplish little more than getting something on the books. As drafted, it had been criticized by the CAOs and clerks of most lower-tier municipalities and, according to the resolution, will be subjected to amendments at Government Services committee over the next few months.

The motion followed a presentation by Greg Cull of the Ministry of Natural Resources, who admitted under pointed questioning by Mulmur Deputy Mayor Sue Snider that the proposed bylaw (fashioned after one used elsewhere) might not be effective for Dufferin.

In an interview outside the meeting, Mr. Cull said there’s an open season on coyotes in southern Ontario. “Anyone with a small-game hunting license can shoot coyotes.” As well, farmers are entitled to “kill, harass or capture” wild animals that are threatening livestock.

The rules differ north of the Severn River. There, “you can’t always tell the difference between the Eastern coyote and wolves.” Hunters are required to have a special license that entitles them to take no more than two animals each year.

The purebred Western coyotes “are relatively small at 30 pounds. The Ontario coyote is a coyotewolf hybrid. The Eastern wolf is about 75 pounds, and the Eastern coyotes are about 45 pounds,” Mr. Cull said.

The natural prey for coyotes are mostly small animals but include deer. He said the “deer predation (by coyotes and wolves) is inversely related to the quantity of sheep in the area. Opportunistic, they will stay where food is plentiful.”

Farmers are entitled to destroy nuisance coyotes. But East Luther Grand Valley Mayor John Oosterhof said most of the kills are at night, “when the farmers are asleep.”

Sheltering farm livestock overnight was touted as one method of protecting them. But Amaranth Mayor Don MacIver said it “doesn’t matter if they’re in the barn, the coyote will go right in the barn. There are a lot of coyote kills. The people with the registered stock are coming to us” for control and better payouts.

Better payouts for coyote kills is a hot topic. One sheep farmer told council that while the MNR has responsibility for the rules of control, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs pays indirectly for the sheep killed by predators based on a 30-yearold schedule.