Rage against coyotes irresponsible

There is a petition afoot, signed by a small group of Maine citizens and supported by some legislators, as well as George Smith of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, to require the Legislature to study how to kill more coyotes. This petition is just the latest blast in a long-running war against predators, grounded in mistaken beliefs about the viciousness of wolves, coyotes, cougars, and other top predators and unwarranted fears about their threat to human safety and welfare. Despite the biological evidence that this war is a threat to the integrity of natural ecosystems and that, in the case of coyotes, it cannot be won, it is apparently still easy to fan the flames of anger and violence against wildlife.

As a philosopher interested in environmental ethics, I find myself wondering what this means for the prospects of an environmentally respectful society. People in Maine pride themselves on living in a relatively pristine natural environment. They profess care and respect for this environment. But what does respect and care for nature mean in the context of a war against predators like coyotes? Can we honestly protect the natural heritage of Maine while advocating the extermination of its predators?

The main argument that is offered for killing the coyotes is that they are killing deer, especially in northern Maine. It is hard to know how to take this argument seriously. This is, after all, the role that predators like coyotes and wolves have in a natural ecosystem. It is their “job,” so to speak, to feed on deer. That is what predators do with animals who are their prey. If we are interested in preserving a healthy natural world, then this is just the kind of thing we should be interested in preserving.

The argument that we should kill coyotes because coyotes kill deer is all the more problematic because we usually hear that the deer are overpopulated. This is the most frequently cited defense of sport hunting, after all. And this points us in the direction of the real issue. Rather than rejoicing that coyotes are, in fact, contributing to the health of the deer herd by lowering their numbers and by killing weaker animals, some people seem enraged that the coyotes might be undermining one of the few plausible justifications hunters have for letting people kill the deer instead.

Now, coyotes are also killing some livestock, especially in southern parts of the state. This is a different kind of problem. Predator-prey relationships are an integral part of healthy natural environments, but domesticated animals are not natural partners in these wild relationships. Still, it is worth asking why we should try to wipe out all the coyotes in order to prevent the loss of a few livestock, especially when we know we cannot succeed. There are other alternatives to consider. Perhaps the loss of a few domesticated animals is just one of the costs of doing business in a state with an extensive wild environment. If so, this cost can either be borne by those who choose to raise livestock, or the state might, in the interests of protecting the essential features of a natural Maine environment, set up a program of compensation.

Some may argue that coyotes are not indigenous to Maine and that they do not, therefore, deserve our care and protection. This is a sword that cuts in many ways, of course. Coyotes are in Maine partly because early European settlers, themselves outsiders to local ways, slaughtered the indigenous wolf populations and created the ecological niche that coyotes have come to inhabit. Coyotes have migrated to Maine following their own natural path, expanding into territory that is appropriate for them, taking advantage of natural opportunities. That coyotes are flexible, resilient, intelligent exploiters of opportunity should be grounds for admiration and curiosity, not vilification and extermination.

An ethic of care and respect for the natural environment in Maine requires that we learn about and acknowledge the autonomous life-ways of other animals. This in turn presupposes that we have understood what these life-ways really are and how these animals play roles of their own within broader natural communities. Humans often live in these communities too and use some of their products, but the communities do not exist for humans; our interests are not the only interests that demand to be considered. Respect and care for the natural environment, therefore, requires us to learn forbearance. We need to learn how to live with what is different from us, and to absorb some of the costs and dangers of living with a healthy natural environment.

This latest rage against coyotes is symptomatic of how far we still are from a culture of care and respect for the natural environment. People are angry that there are too many coyotes in Maine. There is money to be made from coyote pelts and more money to be made in preserving an overpopulated deer herd for hunters to kill. But these arguments for killing coyotes are harder to defend. The time has come to abandon the war on predators. This war reflects badly on us.

Instead, we should demonstrate a re-invigorated sense of environmental responsibility by taking seriously the reintroduction of Maine’s top indigenous predators, the wolf. As wolf populations grow, coyote numbers will drop of their own accord as wolves compete with them for space and food. Here is a solution to “the coyote problem” that is more in keeping with a constructive, environmentally responsible relation to Maine’s natural environment.

Roger King teaches environmental ethics in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Maine.