Found a coyote den with pups

[7.62]

In a month or so pups will kill your small dog. Chickens, rabbits and about any other small animal. Might even bite your child if the kid did not know better to avoid. If they were that close to my house they would be gone.

Bingo!

 

[Hookeye]

Better to shoot a pup rather than have it starve to death.

 

[throttletony]

I'm a yote hunter, but I'm not sure if I could/would do what OP did.
I feel pretty confident saying that If it were my land, I'd probably do the same thing. If I stumbled across it, say hiking, and it weren't my land (nor a friend's farm, etc.) I would have let them be.
I will confess though that I felt just a little bit bad shooting a big feral tom cat on my in-laws' property, but he had already killed one of the house cats, and was setting up to "take over" What the OP did was certainly not pretty, but he did what he felt was right.
P.s. THis would have been a much shorter discussion without the pics

For some it's hard to imagine that those pups quickly turn into this:

 

[Hookeye]

Dude.....................feral cat dead and "feel bad" don't go together.
You've watched too much of The View.

Now turn off the TV and heat up the 10/22 on those strays!

You'll get back to normal soon enough

 

[churchmouse]

Dude.....................feral cat dead and "feel bad" don't go together.
You've watched too much of The View.

Now turn off the TV and heat up the 10/22 on those strays!

You'll get back to normal soon enough

We had a serious Ferrell cat issue a few years back. Neighbor had a small farm in his back yard. Fed the livestock openly and every critter that lived in the city had a buffet. They were using the G-daughters sand box as a toilet.
I have had pets and hated to end some of those animals but if you party with the wrong crowd in the wrong area nothing good comes of it.

 

[churchmouse]

That's a scary picture

That is the way of things.
You should see a pack of dogs attack and you will totally understand.

 

[patience0830]

That is the way of things.You should see a pack of dogs attack and you will totally understand.

Several yrs ago near Yellowwood S/F we lost a friend's mother to a pack. At a home. She was working as a census taker. At my plot of ground 1 dog may get a warning shot. 2 or more exhibiting pack behavior, (chasing wildlife or stock. Threatening behaviour to humans) will be lucky if they reach the property line.And to the o/p, thank you. Wish I had more time to hunt them.

 

[MRP2003]

I skimmed through this thread as it has gotten a lot longer over the past few weeks.

Killing coyotes is not always the best idea and someone may have already said this but I will as well.

In my neighborhood, we use to have a several coyotes and foxes that we could see occasionally. Nobody had a problem with them killing any cats or dogs. A neighbor or two shot a few of the coyotes a while back and now we have a huge rabbit problem. They have eaten all the flowering plants and many of the others. Just last night, I saw 4 hopping around within a 4 yard radius. They have wiped out over $100 of plants that we just planted within 1 week. Before any one says to use the liquid fence or some other product that claims to repel rabbits and deer, I have used them before and have had no luck. At one point even owning 3 large dogs, did nothing. We have plenty of dogs in the neighborhood.

My only point is that coyotes have a place in certain areas. If you are in a residential area and nobody is ahving a problem with the yotes killing pets, leave them alone. When you get rid of them, the rodents population such as rabbits will explode. I know that coyotes will move back in but once they clean up the rabbits and other rodents, they may start coming after our pets.

Just so you know, where ever I hunt, I do shoot the coyotes as I am trying to preserve the deer and rabbit population there.

 

[churchmouse]

I skimmed through this thread as it has gotten a lot longer over the past few weeks.

Killing coyotes is not always the best idea and someone may have already said this but I will as well.

In my neighborhood, we use to have a several coyotes and foxes that we could see occasionally. Nobody had a problem with them killing any cats or dogs. A neighbor or two shot a few of the coyotes a while back and now we have a huge rabbit problem. They have eaten all the flowering plants and many of the others. Just last night, I saw 4 hopping around within a 4 yard radius. They have wiped out over $100 of plants that we just planted within 1 week. Before any one says to use the liquid fence or some other product that claims to repel rabbits and deer, I have used them before and have had no luck. At one point even owning 3 large dogs, did nothing. We have plenty of dogs in the neighborhood.

My only point is that coyotes have a place in certain areas. If you are in a residential area and nobody is ahving a problem with the yotes killing pets, leave them alone. When you get rid of them, the rodents population such as rabbits will explode. I know that coyotes will move back in but once they clean up the rabbits and other rodents, they may start coming after our pets.

Just so you know, where ever I hunt, I do shoot the coyotes as I am trying to preserve the deer and rabbit population there.

Sounds like you had a well balanced situation. That is how the system is supposed to work.

 

[Hookeye]

You have a rabbit problem because the yotes killed or ran off the fox (and ate the feral cats).
Either that or you're just in some cycle where rabbits are on the rise.
That means predators will then eat better/more so their numbers too will increase, and start the decline of the prey species.

I have feral cats and yotes cruising around me, and I actually live on the edge of town (inside city limits).
If I was outside of the limits I'd blast them all.

The feral cats perch upon vehicles at night, proly so yotes can't get to them.

No fox around.

Where I used to hunt the fox stayed above the river valley and the yotes patrolled below. Then the yotes got more in number and expanded their territory. Still fox up there but way fewer.

 

[MRP2003]

Hookeye,
that is interesting as we use to have a lot of fox running through our neighborhood, atleast we saw them frequently but not any more. I also have not seen any feral cats for about 6-7 years now. In either case the rabbits are everywhere. 2 nights ago, I saw 4 at the same time within 3 yards next to my house, just hopping around. They are eating everything including the bark off young trees and any of the new shoots of small trees/bushes.

I started sighting in my air rifle so that I can remove a few rabbits which may be futile as the see to reproduce at a ridiculous rate.

thanks for the info

 

[Hookeye]

No garden and two rabbits under my shed.
Redneck neighbor has a stray cat.............that SOB is like lightning, flies over my privacy fence going after squirrels.
He nails my bunny and he wins a Zwickey.

 

[Harry2110]

I was going to wonder when we going to be brought into this.

Now I would have tried to atleast used the pelts/meat if I was going to shoot something on a property to make sure it didnt go to waste.