County headed to public hearings to end coyote bounty payments and expansion of loose dog prohibitions

Prior to getting detailed overviews on the operations and challenges facing the County’s Fire & Rescue Department and Sheriff’s Office at a Tuesday, November 10, evening work session, Legal and Animal Control staff presented recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on ordinance amendments that would put an end to the County’s paying a $50 dollar bounty for the killing of coyotes and make prohibitions and legal penalties on dogs running loose a countywide offense. County Codes have made prohibitions and fines on unattended dogs running loose a neighborhood-specific offense since 1984 a staff summary noted.

Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan and Warren County Sheriff’s Office Animal Control officer Laura Gomez brought the recommendations to the supervisors, minus the absent Tony Carter.

Above, Marine Birthday Card in place in front of her, Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan briefs supervisors on recommended ordinance amendments on stopping payment of coyote bounties and expansion of running loose dog prohibitions. Below, ‘And it just doesn’t work,’ WCSO Animal Control Officer Laura Gomez explains of the failure of bounties to reduce coyote populations. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video by Mark Williams

Jordan summarized information from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) citing, as our contributing writer Malcolm Barr Sr. pointed out in a November 2017 Royal Examiner article, studies indicating no evidence that the random killing of coyotes has any positive impact on reducing their numbers in a given location.

“Coyote bounties have been tried throughout the United States for more than 150 years. There is not a single documented instance of a bounty program temporarily or permanently reducing coyote populations or livestock depredation problems,” Michael L. Fies of VDGIF wrote in response to a November 2016 inquiry by Bath County Animal Control officials included in Tuesday night’s agenda packet.

“Other concerns with coyote bounty programs include rampant fraud – coyotes turned in from other counties, coyotes checked in multiple times, etc. – Bounty programs may also increase the likelihood that domestic dogs will be accidentally shot or trapped,” Fies wrote in response to the Bath County inquiry four years ago, also noting, “Most coyotes are killed opportunistically by hunters and farmers. Very few additional animals are killed as a result of bounty programs. Research has shown that coyote populations must be reduced by more than 60% or their numbers will recover in a single year … Since coyote bounties are ineffective, our Department has consistently recommended against these programs in favor of targeted control efforts around farms with a history of coyote damage. This approach has been successfully used by USDA Wildlife Services  to reduce livestock losses in other portions of the state.”

Royal Examiner File Photo

An agenda summary included in the work session packet noted the $50 bounty offered by Warren County totaling between $2500 and $3800 dollars since Fiscal Year 2011-12. Records traced the County’s paying of coyote bounties back to FY-2000-01.

Referencing Fies letter, Gomez pointed to bounties being paid to out-of-county residents traveling here to take advantage of the bounty program and the overall waste of County funds on bounty payments.

“The biggest issue with that is we have documentation showing it’s not effective in any way. And removing the coyote bounty would not prevent people from still being able to protect their property and their livestock,” Gomez noted of the proposed ordinance amendment ending the bounty program. “And another issue is we don’t pay anyone to kill other nuisance animals such as raccoons, foxes and things like that. And they’re showing in that letter that it has over a 150-year failure.”

And while the recommendation was to end the bounty program completely, Assistant County Attorney Jordan suggested in the short term, adding a legal penalty to the existing code for filing a false coyote bounty claim. This late in the year, with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons approaching and a reduced board meeting schedule, Jordan suggested bringing the two ordinance amendment recommendations to Public Hearing in early January 2021.

While there wasn’t much push back on this portion of the recommended codes sections, North River District Supervisor Delores Oates and South River’s Cheryl Cullers expressed some concern with expansion of the loose dog amendment. Oates worried that her dog may break through her electric fencing and wondered if she would be fined if she called seeking help in re-capturing her dog. She also noted that people whose dogs have gotten loose are already in a stressful situation of concern their escaped dog might be hit in traffic.

Gomez pointed to 800 calls this year to her department concerning dogs at large, and a total of 900 calls last year. She noted that about 30 county neighborhoods already have prohibitions on dogs at large, saying the change would assure all the county’s citizens are treated the same.

Interim County Administrator Ed Daley explains a countywide loose dog prohibition would target habitual offenders, as opposed to isolated incidents of an escaped dog trying to be recaptured by its owner.

Interim County Administrator Ed Daley pointed out that the ordinance change expanding the $50 fine for a lone dog at large, and $100 for dogs running loose in a pack, was aimed at chronic, repeat offenders, rather than isolated incidents of a dog getting away from its owner.

This seemed to ease some of the concern expressed by Oates and Cullers that the amendment might be too harshly applied on citizens trying to recapture their dog after accidental escapes.

Emergency Services Chief Richard Mabie at the podium as Sheriff Mark Butler and staff await their turn, as the sheriff quipped, at some point before his retirement.

See this discussion, as well as County Fire Chief Richard Mabie and staff’s presentation on the state of their department and Sheriff Mark Butler and his administrative staff’s summary of their department in this Royal Examiner video: