The neighborhood off Glen Oaks Drive in Rye, New York is now upset and on guard for further attacks, keeping their children inside and closely guarded. Thankfully this young girl was not more seriously injured.

There are two obvious issues that need to be addressed and I am left once again wondering what it is going to take to smarten people up? The first issue has to do with protecting coyotes. As long as people insist on protecting this animal, the more we can expect to read about attacks in the newspapers, etc. The second issue has to do with mounting a public education campaign to let people know that coyotes will and have attacked and to expect more of the same. All we ever read about in any account of attacks by any wild animal is how rare it is and that people shouldn’t be concerned.

People need to be aware that now that they insist on protecting coyotes, they will take up residence in backyards and it’s only a matter of time before someone is attacked – more than likely more children because of their size.

We are reaping what we have sown.

Tom Remington

Back last March, 2009, I told readers about efforts by a handful of people to petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect wolves and coyotes in the Northeast Region. The request essentially asked the USFWS to do three things: 1. Create a Distinct Population Segment for gray wolves in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, ; 2. Design and implement a Northeastern Gray Wolf Recovery Plan, and; 3. Regulate the commerce or taking, and treat as endangered species in the States of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, coyotes (Canis latrans), coyote/gray wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lupus), eastern wolves (Canis lycaon), eastern wolf/gray wolf hybrids (Canis lycaon x Canis lupus), coyote/eastern wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lycaon), and coyote/eastern wolf/gray wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lycaon x Canis lupus) because of their close resemblance to the federally endangered and protected gray wolf.

According to a 90-day finding on the request, the USFWS states that requesting a wolf management plan and to regulate the commerce of taking coyotes, wolves, etc. are not petitionable items under the Endangered Species Act. As the petition pertains to the creation of a Distinct Population Segment of gray wolves, the USFWS responded accordingly:

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list a Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in five northeastern States as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We find that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing a DPS of the gray wolf in Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine may be warranted. Therefore, we will not initiate a further status review in response to this petition. However, we ask the public to submit to us at any time, any new information that becomes available concerning the presence of the gray wolf in the northeastern United States, particularly information to substantiate the presence of breeding pairs.

The petitioners have an agenda and as we have been witness to for years, they are attempting to abuse and manipulate an outdated and poorly written Endangered Species Act to put a stop to all hunting and trapping disguised as protecting animals. While the USFWS for now says that no DPS will be created, they have left the door open and are asking people to notify them about findings of gray wolves, etc. Just being witness to this nonsense makes one seriously ask why they would at all be interested in helping in the discovery of gray wolves in their area. When we see the destruction of private property, including the slaughter of livestock and other domestic animals, along with a stripping away of property and property rights, caused as a result of protecting these critters, it’s ridiculous for anyone to consider inviting the federal government in to further control their lives and destroy the wildlife ecosystems we have now.

Think about it!

Tom Remington

Many of us who complain that it’s the city dwellers who dictate to the country folk that we should put up with wolves, coyotes, bears, etc. Well, finally it seems there might be some coyotes invading Manhattan. This is cause for a huge celebration! I immediately suggest that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service place the coyote in Manhattan on the Endangered Species List so nobody can harm them poor innocent animals.

Tom Remington

I am OUTRAGED by the callous disregard for we the NY sportsmen and women by the DEC’s (Department of Environmental Conservation) Peter Grannis. While a fee increase from time to time is expected, this is nothing short of RAPE and highway robbery. Can I pay it? Yes, I can pay it. Will I? Will you??

The cost of a single item license (ie: small game hunting; fishing; etc) was increased by a factor of OVER 50% That can not stand. The cost of an upper echelon license (ie: Supersportsman)factoring in doe permit fees and the new license for Marine fishing approaches a factor of 70%. I think we should scream bloody murder and call for the head of Commissioner Grannis. We must live within our means. So must the DEC. So must ALL governmental agencies. An end to the never ending upward spiral of fees, taxes and surcharges must be demanded!

We have the power to do this. I know that many have made statements by their refusal to purchase doe permits. That’s good. I am willing to go a little farther by calling for a BOYCOTT of sporting licenses until DEC backs down, and they will, quickly, as soon as they see that their attempt to raise their income by raping New York sportsmen has BACKFIRED in their faces. We don’t need to hunt or fish. We do it because we want to. DEC on the other hand does need us. We are the hand that feeds them, and they are biting us HARD! Raise your voices and close your wallets!

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to state that I have, up till now, been a regular annual purchaser of a Conservation Legacy license. This year, I will not be buying that. I do, however, want to put venison in my freezer, so it is likely that, despite my call for total boycott, I will at minimum purchase a big game tag with doe permit. I am also considering a lifetime sportsman license prior to Oct. 1 as this will place my money into the conservation fund which is untouchable save for it’s garnered interest and provide me without increased charge my recreational licenses (optional to me for bow and muzzle loader) and no charge doe permits for life, thus undermining Commissar Grannis’ attempted extortion.

I sent a letter to State Senator William Larkin to express my outrage. Below is a copy of that letter.

An open letter to:
Senator William Larkin
1093 Little Britain Rd
New Windsor, NY 12553

August 19, 2009

Dear Senator Larkin,

I am returning your recent mailing of the NYS Hunting Seasons. Kindly stop spending MY money on unnecessary items. I won’t be needing it, at any rate. I went to the DEC website to purchase my annual Conservation Legacy license, to find an unconscionable increase in the fee. This increase of 30 dollars has caused me, at great personal disappointment, to cancel my annual hunt and also to give up my fishing privileges for at least the coming year.

I am sick and tired of you, the ruling class, constantly and continually imposing increased fees, surcharges and new licenses (Now a MARINE license is required!!) upon we the people as if we are nothing more then an inexhaustible “fountain of money.” Enough!!!!! Although I will feel very bad and very sad for giving up my hunting and fishing, I would feel worse if I allowed myself to be RAPED by the Legislature and the DEC.

This “obscene overcharge” situation is not limited to any one thing, either. It is pervasive throughout every part of modern life in this state, from campgrounds to state parks to motor vehicle to property taxes. The property tax portion of a current mortgage payment is rising to the point where it EQUALS the actual mortgage!

Sincerely,

Richard Rizza
Cc: Times Herald Record

It has gotten so bad that a group, made up of representatives from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, have petitioned the Department of Interior in order to place protections under the Endangered Species Act for any interbred species of dogs, coyotes, wolves or any combination of the above, claiming these all to be unique species.

In accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act and/or the Endangered Species Act, we hereby petition the U.S. Department of Interior and the Service to regulate the commerce or taking, and treat as endangered species in the States of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, coyotes (Canis latrans), coyote/gray wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lupus), eastern wolves (Canis lycaon), eastern wolf/gray wolf hybrids (Canis lycaon x Canis lupus), coyote/eastern wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lycaon), and coyote/eastern wolf/gray wolf hybrids (Canis latrans x Canis lycaon x Canis lupus) because of their close resemblance to the federally endangered and protected gray wolf.
In accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act and/or the U.S. Endangered Species Act, we also hereby petition the U.S. Department of Interior and the Service: (1) to establish a Northeastern Gray Wolf Distinct Population Segment consisting of the States of New York, Vermont New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts; and, (2) to develop and implement a Northeastern Gray Wolf Recovery Plan.

Part of this groups reasoning is that with open hunting and trapping seasons on eastern coyote, because some of these coyotes my have interbred with an Eastern gray wolf, it should be protected in order to protect the gray wolf.

We seem only now willing to admit that wolves and domestic dogs have been interbreeding for centuries. Recently it was determined that what made wolves black was the result of interbreeding with dogs. We’ve even found in historic writings, like those of Teddy Roosevelt’s, that Indians and trappers/hunters used to do a lot of interbreeding with wolves and their hunting dogs to develop a dog that could stand up to wolves.

Neither the gray wolf nor the eastern coyote is threatened or in any danger of extinction. To think that we now should consider protecting mongrel dogs in the wild is absolutely ridiculous. When the USFWS gets done reviewing this petition, it should be immediately tossed in the garbage can.

Tom Remington

A nineteen year old was arrested walking down the median of I-84 in New York carrying dead deer parts, including a deer’s head, a red spray paint can and he was covered with red paint.

“Mr. Carlson could not give any reasonable explanation for walking out on the highway, carrying paint and dead deer parts,” police said in a release today.

Now unless this dude just got off the bus from Washington, D.C., where he was working on writing another stimulus plan (I don’t think he was a monkey), I find it hard to believe that someone could be so creative as to take a stroll down I-84 with a dead deer’s head and red paint and he couldn’t come up with a creative excuse as to why.

The last time I was stopped for walking down an interstate highway covered in paint and carrying a deer head, I told the officer I took a break from work – I’m a professional spray paint can tester – to walk my pet deer, Oliver. Oliver didn’t want to go for a walk so I didn’t take Oliv-him. Ooooh, that was really bad.

But hey this is right up there with the guy who was arrested for driving around town with a Hurst and a dead deer in the back. Was that the same guy who was having sex with the deer?

Tom Remington

The good news is that the fish and game officials recognize and acknowledge the problem and are moving to do something about it. Consequently the bear harvest quota will be upped to 4,585 and will be monitored closely.

Also, further east in New York, bear hunters this year appear to have had a pretty good season reaching at or above record bear harvest numbers in two of three hunting zones.

Tom Remington

But that didn’t stop at least one person in our hunting party! Of the eight of us at camp during the week, one deer was seen, total, and one deer was taken.

Dennis, pictured above with his deer, persisted in his tree stand until last legal light. He had placed a combination of scents around and near his spot and waited. Just before dark, this prize appeared with nose to the ground, determined in his quest to find the source of the compelling odors.

He was a 10-point, weighing in at 193 pounds.

So where were all the deer? Good question. We know that last winter’s deep snows created a “blood bath” in some locals, as was described to me by one game warden who flew over the region last winter where we hunt. Ironically, the same warden believes there are still ample deer although not like the past couple seasons.

As for me being sick most of the week, I managed only to see a gathering of wild turkeys one day and a ruffed grouse on another. Ironically as it may seem, our trip north and the return trip south provided moments of great entertainment spotting deer.

The most deer that we saw in broad daylight was about a 30-minute drive from downtown New York City. The second most deer we see were in Pennsylvania, where all I have heard for the past couple of years is that Pennsylvania’s deer have all been killed as the result of poor management by the PA. Game Commission.

To spend six days in the woods of Maine hunting for deer and seeing nothing and to spot perhaps hundreds of deer from a car in broad daylight in Pennsylvania, doesn’t conjure up a whole lot of sympathy to those Pennsylvania hunters who say it isn’t worth hunting anymore. Try spending $105.00 for a non-resident Maine big game hunting permit and seeing nothing.

I’m back and am sorting through my 60,000 plus emails. Depressed as I am over the results of the election, I’m putting my nose to the grindstone and will be back to posting information, stories and entertainment again.

Thanks for keeping the site active with your comments!

Tom Remington

The state of New York meanwhile is deciding to take the lead and do what they know is the right and best thing to do. They are going to expand their bear hunting zones as a way to counter the rapid growth of bears in certain areas.

The polar opposite of Liza Jackson, New Jersey’s Department of Environment Protection commissioner, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner, Pete Grannis, recognizes and acknowledges that hunting is a viable tool. This according to Newsday.

State DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis says the hunting boundaries were expanded because the black bear population has grown in number and range in recent years, and hunting is an important tool in managing bear population growth.

Gordon Batcheller is a wildlife biologist with the NYDEC and says when he began his science career in Western New York, there were few bears. Now he says dealing with bears is a common occurrence.

Anti-hunting groups continue their onslaught of deceit attempting to convince the people that man is the problem and that we are living in their space and should therefore suffer the negative consequences of dealing with hungry bears.

I might concur that man is the problem but not nearly in the same manner as these groups might. Man has done such a fantastic job of managing these animals, they are flourishing. That isn’t to say that certain conditions don’t have good and bad effects on bears but they must be responsibly managed. That means making adjustments to populations.

A well run wildlife management program will stay on top of issues like the bear and implement changes to its hunting season to maintain population numbers at healthy levels. Kudos to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation for being a leader and staying on top of things.

Maybe some of this will rub off on your neighbors to the south.

Tom Remington

I am beginning to hear grumblings from different corners of the country that hunting license sales are edging up from recent years and some are thinking it might be related to the economy. Newsday.com is reporting that the state of New York is seeing a jump up of around 75,000 licenses but can’t quite get a handle on the real reasons why. I suppose time will tell.

What about where you live? Are you going to hunt and fish more now that things might be tightening up in your household? Is the price of gas going to have the opposite affect and force you to hunt and fish less? Please feel free to leave comments here about your personal perspective and if you can provide any substantiated evidence of increased license sales in your area or state, we’d appreciated hearing about it.

Tom Remington