The Maine Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee considered a bill from State Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill) to restrict the coyote hunting season in the state this week that pitted hunters and state wildlife officials against those seeking to save the animal that farmers and others consider a threat to their livestock.

When presenting her bill on March 3, Rep. Milliken stated that it is her understanding that “deer don’t tend to go up north,” in Maine — drawing astonished and amused response from the public. Focus on that debatable statement drew more attention in subsequent days that the proposed measure itself.

LD 716 would ban the killing of the predators other than the winter season between October and March. There are an estimated 12,000 coyotes in Maine, and it has been legal to hunt them since 1972.

“I’ve received more hateful phone calls and texts” since introducing the bill, Rep. Milliken said at the outset of her testimony and went on to state that she “has heard that killing coyotes can be quite gruesome.”

Milliken also stated that her family’s dog successfully kept coyotes at bay from her property and suggested that dogs elsewhere in the state might do the same, mitigating the nuisance and threat their population poses to farmers.

Deanna Arut of Rockwood testified in favor of LD 716 but periodically turned around to instead lecture the audience of mainly hunters on the cruelties inherent in killing coyotes and had to be reminded to address the committee instead.

Most U.S. states allow coyote hunting year round. The committee voted in the 131st legislature not to pass a similar bill.

Nate Webb from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIFW) stated that “coyotes have the lowest favorable rating of all fur bearing creatures, with many of those attitudes connected to their impact on the deer population.”

The department does not recommend a restricted hunting season, and does not believe reducing the season by fifty percent is warranted, he said, adding that the bill if passed would create one of the most restrictive seasons in the nation. The coyote population is abundant and not impacted by the hunt, Webb testified.

In addition to DIFW, the Sportman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) and more than a dozen outdoorsmen from throughout the state gathered in Augusta on March 3 to testify against the restrictions.

Tim Farrah from Western Maine said he has been hunting and trapping coyotes since 1972 and is frequently asked by farmers to eradicate the predators after they’ve killed cows and other livestock.

“Legislative intent (in permitting the year round hunting of coyotes in 1972) was not to encourage recreational hunting but to enlist hunters in controlling the population and their negative impacts,” SAM Executive Director David Trahan testified. The majority of Mainers support the hunt, he added, citing recent survey data.

“There were always deer in Northern Maine,” Trahan said, “but the loss of habitat and predation has largely wiped them out,” he said, further supporting the case for continuing and not restricting efforts to control the coyote population.

In a work session on March 17, the committee heard testimony that coyotes carry deer ticks, which strengthened the argument for controlling their population. Shortly after that, the committee voted that Milliken’s LD 716 Out Not to Pass.