Bounty’s benefit limited to trappers: Liberals
Posted Apr 23, 2010 05:46:25 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The new $20 bounty on coyote pelts is being called a fix for hunters, not for residents concerned about aggressive animals.
There was a decrease in coyote trapping when the price of pelts plummeted from about $40 to $13 last year. Gary Fischer with the Trappers’ Association of Nova Scotia says that prompted feedback from trappers that they would stop setting snares in remote areas because they couldn’t afford the travel costs.
Fischer says the new bounty will be enough to get trappers back to the areas where coyotes have proliferated.
“That $20 will help us get out into those areas,” he said. “It will bring traditional trappers back out on to the market.”
Fischer says he’ll increase his trapping by about 30 per cent because of the new bounty.
Liberal MLA Leo Glavine says he’s in favour of the new plan to train trappers, educate the public, and hire a wildlife specialist – but not the bounty.
“I think parts two, three, and four would have actually done just fine,” he said. “I don’t think we should be here to work out the problems of the industry that pelts are low.”
Glavine says while the bounty is great news for trappers who have faced sinking pelt prices in recent years, it will not solve the problem of increasingly aggressive coyote behaviour – or reduce the population.
“A biologist will tell us now, there will be more litters, more pups per litter,” he said. “This is nature’s way of rebounding and it will surely happen.”
The Tories are congratulating the Dexter government for the new plan.
