The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s coyote-snaring program has more opposition than Deirdre Fleming reported (BDN, Dec. 20).

While we who oppose snaring know that the wire snare and its partner in misery, the steel-jaw leg hold trap, are notoriously indiscriminate, we are opposed to their use on any animal, “target” or not, because of their inherent cruelty. There are no “bad” animals that somehow deserve prolonged, agonizing deaths at the hands of humans.

Opposition to snaring is definitely not limited to animal protectionists: a memo, dated Nov. 8, 2001, from Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Chuck Hulsey to Ken Elowe, director of resource management, discusses “non-support” of the snaring program by staff biologists. Mr. Hulsey writes that “coyotes are not a significant threat to our deer population”; that “killing an animal by strangling it with a wire loop often results in a slow, painful death, sometimes lasting days”; that the “presence of a large canid predator is a benefit to deer, not a detriment”; and that “it would violate state humane laws to treat a domestic dog in this same manner. …”

He further states that “the real obstacle to attaining a higher deer population in more than half the state is the declining quality and quantity of wintering habitat. ..,” and that “coyote bounties [the snaring program] have a long history of absolute failure.”

Mr. Hulsey also writes that changes in the program have “liberalized snaring,” and “from my vantage point as a wildlife biologist, those changes have been politically, not biologically driven, primarily from a couple of small but highly effective special interest groups.”

The two groups, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, in the person of George Smith, and the Maine Trappers Association, know first-hand about the brutality and ineffectiveness of the snaring program but continue to selfishly push for its continuance and expansion. IF&W Commissioner Lee Perry seems ready to accommodate them.

If you don’t believe that any animal deserves to die in a snare, write: Lee Perry, 284 State St., 41 State House Station, Augusta 04333-0041.

Susan Cockrell

Holden