MONTPELIER, Vt. – State wildlife officials are uncomfortable with a coyote hunting tournament that offers prizes for killing the smallest coyote.

While coyotes are fair game in Vermont on any day of the year – there is no established season nor required permits – Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Wayne Laroche said Tuesday he thinks the tournament is a bad idea.

“It is legal,” Laroche said of the “1st Annual Howlin’ Hills Coyote Hunt” set to begin Feb. 25 in Whiting, a small western Vermont town north of Brandon.

“You can hunt coyotes all year round,” he said. “But this might not be good for hunting, and we want to discuss with them our concerns about the public perception of what’s going on.”

The idea of a three-day coyote hunt, in which prizes are awarded for the lightest and heaviest kills, turned the stomachs of some lawmakers Tuesday.

But to hunt organizer Donald Felion, the public’s perception is less important than the message he hopes to send to Montpelier and across Vermont.

“I’m 57 years old, and I’ve been a hunter all of my life,” the Leicester resident said. “For the last 20 years, I’ve been hunting out of state. But there [aren’t] enough deer. You can tell me that coyotes don’t kill deer. They do.”

And he says he’s killed dozens of coyotes over the years. His decision to organize next weekend’s hunt came with a frustration over how the deer herd is being managed in Vermont.

He and many other sportsmen say the state bureaucracy has done an inadequate job when it comes to making sure there are enough deer.

“We don’t have any deer to shoot,” he said. “So let’s shoot coyotes. This is to get people out to do something, after deer season, instead of sitting around and chewing the state out.”

Laroche said that if the public perceives the hunt to be distasteful, it could lead to the introduction of bills banning or restricting coyote hunting in the state.

“We really want to head in the direction of less public outcry over this,” Laroche said. “I feel it is our responsibility to discuss these issues within the hunting community before it becomes a huge problem.”