Coyote snaring results in more calls to legislators and more letters to the editor than the budget shortfall and the Middle East combined.

Next week, the drama will hit Augusta, when the 121st Legislature considers two bills, one to ban the use of snares entirely, the other to eliminate their use as a means of controlling coyote populations.

Since 1983, the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has provided funds to hire trappers to kill coyotes with a type of wire-loop trap called a snare.

Many hunters in eastern and northern Maine say the program is necessary to protect struggling deer herds in their regions.

Opponents, some of whom are also deer hunters, call the practice inhumane and a waste of tax money.

Rep. Matt Dunlap, D-Old Town, chairman of the Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, said he has seen the conflict brewing for a long time. Calls to end the snaring program are an Augusta staple, but with budget constraints and the mass of public dissent, this year’s bills have a better chance of reaching the floor for a vote than any in recent memory.

“There’s been concern about the snaring program for a while,” Dunlap said. “You’re sort of left with this political draw – do you really want to go to the wall for a program that’s of concern to both the hunting and nonhunting public?”

Gov. John Baldacci pledged during his campaign that he would support the program unless new data emerged to change his mind.

Earlier this month, he recommended cutting animal damage control completely out of his 2004 DIF&W budget. Including staff time, the program has cost about $40,000 per year, according to DIF&W records.

But even without funding, the legislation that created the coyote-snaring program will remain, so snaring opponents continue to demand legislation.

“The program may be gone, but if there’s money later on they could bring it back. Just in case, it’s important to disallow coyote snaring,” said Debra Davidson, a wildlife ecologist and predator advocate from Kents Hill.

Many opponents call the snaring program a waste of tax money, but the budget isn’t their primary worry.

“The major concern is endangered species,” said Rep. Raymond Pineau, D-Jay, who submitted one of two bills to end the coyote-snaring program.

Pineau’s bill and a similar proposal drafted by Rep. Linda McKee, D-Wayne, have been merged into LD 237. The bill has support from Maine Audubon, as well as Davidson.

Coyote snarers have reported killing at least two, perhaps three bald eagles, and one Canada lynx, Pineau said.

And some believe the bycatch numbers to be much higher, as snarers may not be reporting the illegal deaths of threatened and endangered species for fear of prosecution.

Pineau’s bill would allow snares to be used only for trapping beavers during the winter, a use that does not typically result in bycatch. Coyotes could still be killed to protect deer, but by more selective means, such as sharpshooters or leghold traps.

Tom Bull, D-Freeport, has sponsored LD 455, a dueling proposal to ban all snaring in the state of Maine.

“It [snaring] is intensively inhumane. It does not kill in a fast manner,” Bull said. “It can be a very slow and painful death.”

Snares kill animals by strangulation and the speed of an animal’s death – be it a coyote, an eagle or a household pet -can vary widely from seconds to days. Last year, data from a study of snared coyote carcasses indicated that slow, painful deaths might be more common than had been previously known.

Bull’s proposal has the support of Maine Friends of Animals as well as NoSnare, an activist group founded to oppose coyote snaring.

The Maine Trappers’ Association and the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine are expected to be the major opponents to any anti-snare legislation. SAM Executive Director George Smith called the coyote-snaring program “critical” for boosting deer herds.

“It’s a legitimate tool for animal management, and it shouldn’t be lost,” Smith said. “If we want to write off the deer-hunting economy in northern and western Maine, that’s a decision the Legislature will have to make.”

Other sportsmen worry that the snaring debate is casting a negative light on hunters.

“While it is painful to hand animal rightists any victory, this may be one time when SAM should tread lightly,” Harry Vanderweide, editor of the Maine Sportsman, wrote in a recent issue. “In the past SAM has fought hard for coyote control, but this is now an issue which can mark them as unreasonable extremists.”

Legislators tend to be doubtful of the impassioned arguments being made by both sides, and anticipate an emotional debate and a very difficult decision.

“Both sides of the debate have been cooking the books,” Dunlap said.

Public hearings on both coyote bills are scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 25, beginning at 2:45 p.m. in Room 206 of the Cross Office Building in Augusta.