Choice words on coyotes

Editor:

I eagerly awaited the response from readers to my letter regarding coyotes.

One reader voiced the moral outrage I was expecting and possibly missed my point entirely by making a broad generalization about farmers.

Mr. Philp, clearly these are controversial topics in the country; however, I know exactly what I’m talking about so please don’t make assumptions.

I’m also a farmer. But fruits, grains, and vegetables don’t really require culling or killing.

My neighbours, whose families have lived up here for generations, only began noticing the owls nesting in trees, the turtles in their ponds, and the other creatures who have an equal right to the land, when threats of quarries and turbines made environmental assessments necessary.

Until that time, it was (and still is for many) considered sport and human entitlement to hunt and kill it all.

I state this again unequivocally, that species are at risk and extinct due to human activity; that the environmental toll on our planet is the result of reckless human activity – not anything else.

So don’t talk to me about humans as if they’re victims. People make choices.

Animals don’t. 

Meg Mercer,

Creemore.