Kentucky and West Virginia conservation officers arrested six people, served summonses on two others and seized eight illegally possessed coyotes Friday after an investigation into a coyote and fox trafficking ring that has been underway for almost two years.
In all, the suspects face at least 831 counts of illegally buying, selling or possessing wild-caught foxes and coyotes, and in one case, cruelty to animals....
....For the past 20 months, Kentucky undercover officers say they witnessed the illegal buying, selling and possession of live foxes and coyotes. They also witnessed Creech cutting the tails off live coyotes destined for use in chase pens.
"Officers in other states have heard of that practice, but this is the first time someone has actually demonstrated it to an officer," said a Kentucky undercover officer who witnessed the mutilation. "The tail is the first thing the hounds grab, so cutting it off makes it harder for the dogs to catch the coyote and extends the chase."
....The trade in foxes and coyotes stems from the practice of turning packs of fox hounds loose inside fenced enclosures ranging in size up to several hundred acres to chase foxes or coyotes. The chases may begin about sundown and may continue through noon or so the next day.
Officers say some chase pen operators need a continuous supply of foxes and coyotes and will pay as much as $100 or more for each animal.
That sets off alarms for wildlife biologists concerned about creating a commercial black market in Kentucky for the sale of coyotes and foxes to running pens
I have not been shy about my position on canned hunts.
To read several longer posts on the issue of ethical hunting, see:
- Hunting and Fishing Like Adults
- Artificial Dens, Big Dogs and Fair Chase
- Balancing Hawks & Doves in Wildlife Management
Back in January, in the comments section of this blog, I noted that fox pens were a very dangerous slippery slope, as the need for fenced training areas was relatively small, and the economic pressure to turn these things into canned hunts was pretty great. My bottom line conclusion:
The single greatest threat to hunting in American remains unethical sportsmen who can too easily give us all a bad name. Hunting ethics are not a "nicety," they are a necessity.
If the only hunting you can do is a canned hunt, then give it up. Ditto for "pay and pull" fishing and "pay and pull" bird hunting.
I stick by those statements. This country is running riot with wild game. If folks cannot find a couple of thousand acres to run their dogs on, then they are either not trying very hard, or need to give it up. Penned fox is not the answer to whatever question is being asked.
The good news is that this stuff is so rare that most people have never heard of it. You can run hounds your whole life and hunt fox every weekend and never even hear of one of these fox pen operations. The bad news, in my opinion, is that they exist at all. They are not part of the American tradition, and they need to be wiped out. End of story.
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